Georgian Christian Democrat Stacey Abrams Seeks to Become First Black Female Governor in US
Stacey Abrams, a Yale Law School graduate who is the daughter of United Methodist Church ministers, is seeking to become the first Black female governor in the United States. And if the prayers of her fellow parishioners at Columbia Drive United Methodist Church in Decatur, Georgia, are answered, she will likely make it.
“We want to pray for Stacey Abrams,” a pastor at the church prayed at a recent meeting in which Abrams participated earlier this month, according to a WABE report. “We want to pray, with her the season may change — that with her being elected as the governor of the great state of Georgia that all of those ideas from the current administration be answered to the way of righteousness.”
Abrams, 44, is the former minority leader in the Georgia legislature. She will face off with fellow Democrat Stacey Evans on May 22 to become Georgia’s Democratic nominee for governor. A FOX 5 Atlanta poll this week shows Abrams leading that race but she is taking nothing for granted.
Making references to the biblical Esther, she urged he fellow parishioners in the meeting where she received prayer to speak up.
“I was sitting back there thinking about Esther chapter 4, verse 14,” she said. “And it’s a verse that says, ‘If you remain silent at this time, there will be salvation that comes for others, but you and your family may not see it.’”
She continued: “I believe the only way to win Georgia is to … essentially get Democrats who have too often been overlooked and unheard to believe that this time if they engage, we can win.”
On Thursday, Abrams gained the endorsement of former presidential candidate and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders. He called her the “only candidate for governor of Georgia who has real solutions that will help the lives of working people in Georgia.”
In the WABE report, Abrams recalled being a high school valedictorian who was stopped when she tried to attend a party for valedictorians with the governor.
“This is a private event, you don’t belong here,” she said a guard told her.
“I’m running for governor because I intend to … open those gates wide so no one ever doubts they belong in our Georgia,” she told voters on the campaign trail.
Abrams is not new to making history. She was the first African American to lead in the House of Representatives in Georgia and the first woman to lead either party in the Georgia General Assembly.
