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Stacey Abrams, former Democratic candidate for governor of Georgia and star voting rights activist, has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, Reuters reports.
Abrams and his Fair Fight Action organization have been instrumental in increasing black voter turnout in Georgia during this electoral cycle – a sprawling, multi-year effort that resulted in the long-standing Red State turns blue.
Lars Haltbrekken, a Socialist Party politician in the Norwegian Parliament, said Monday, the first day of Black History Month in the United States and the last day for someone to be nominated for the award, that “the work of ‘Abrams follows in Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. traces of the struggle for equality before the law and for civil rights.
King won the award in 1964.
Haltbrekken added: “Abrams’ efforts to complete King’s work are crucial if the United States of America is successful in its efforts to create brotherhood among all its peoples and a peaceful and just society,” said Haltbrekken .
Thousands of people are eligible to nominate someone for the honor, which is announced each year in October.
The Oslo-based Norwegian Nobel Committee will issue a shortlist for the award in March. Other notable candidates this year include Russian dissident Alexei Navalny and teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg.
Abrams’ fight against voter suppression began in 2014, when she launched the New Georgia Project to get unregistered black Georgians to register to vote in the midterm elections that year.
After a narrow loss in the 2018 state gubernatorial race to become Republican now-governor. Brian kempBrian Kemp Democrats overtake GOP in approval ratings in Georgia: Poll Georgia state GOP lawmaker introduces bill requiring two copies of ID to vote when absent Trump creates’ “ Former President’s Office ” in Florida, Abrams created Fair Fight Action to continue to fight voter repression in Georgia and across the country.
Kemp, as Georgia’s secretary of state in 2017, orchestrated what critics described as the largest purge of voters in U.S. history – an action that disproportionately affected black residents of the State of Peach.
Granted, Georgia’s suffrage work is rooted in a strong grassroots organization, but Abrams is undoubtedly the face of the movement.
Abrams received celebrity congratulations and lawmakers after President Biden narrowly defeated the former President TrumpDonald Trump Biden cancels Trump’s last minute attempt to freeze 0.4 billion programs Trump announces new impeachment legal team after reported departures as Republicans strive to unite as next election cycle approaches MORE in November and even more after Democrats staged a surprise sweep of Georgia’s second-round Senate elections.
It is generally expected that Abrams will announce a second candidacy for the governorship of Georgia soon. No black woman has been elected governor of a state.
The last US Nobel Peace Prize winner was former President Obama in 2009.
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