ABOUT STACEY ABRAMS, C'95
Founder, Fair Fight
Political Pioneer
Stacey Abrams is a political leader, voting rights activist and New York Times best-selling author. After serving for 11 years in the Georgia House of Representatives, and seven as Democratic Leader, Abrams became the Democratic nominee for governor of Georgia in 2018, and won more votes (at the time) than any other Democrat in the state’s history. Abrams was the first Black woman to become the gubernatorial nominee for a major party in the United States, and she was the first Black woman and first Georgian to deliver a Response to the State of the Union.
Abrams launched Fair Fight to ensure every American has a voice in our election system through programs such as Fair Fight 2020, an initiative to fund and train voter protection teams in 20 battleground states. Over the course of her career, Abrams has founded multiple organizations devoted to voting rights, training and hiring young people of color, and tackling social issues at both the state and national levels. In 2019, she launched Fair Count to ensure accuracy in the 2020 Census and greater participation in civic engagement; and the Southern Economic Advancement Project, a public policy initiative to broaden economic power and build equity in the South.
She is a recipient of the John F. Kennedy New Frontier Award and a current member of the Board of Directors for the Center for American Progress. Abrams has also written eight romantic suspense novels under the pen name Selena Montgomery, in addition to the New York Times best-selling "Lead from the Outside" and "Our Time is Now." Her novel, “While Justice Sleeps,” will be released in May 2021.
Abrams received degrees from Spelman College, the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas and Yale Law School. Born in Madison, Wisconsin, she and her five siblings grew up in Gulfport, Mississippi, and were raised in Georgia.
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