Stacey Abrams has a plan to turn Georgia into blue

People tend to remember the first time they've heard Stacey Abrams speak, and it's easy to see why. On a Friday afternoon in May, the Democratic candidate for the governorship of Georgia is in a union hall in Augusta, telling the story of his father, a black man trained at the university who was relegated at a shipyard in southern Mississippi. the 1970s The family had a car, so Robert Abrams sometimes hitchhiked in the middle of the night. When he did not go home, the rest of the family went to fetch him and found him half frozen at the side of the road, having given his coat to a homeless person. They asked why he, a poor man on a lonely road at night, would do such a thing. And Robert said, "Because I knew you were coming for me."

You may hear scattered sniffles in the village hall as her daughter pauses. Then she roars, "I'm coming for you, Georgia! Help me get there!"

This kind of moment is one of the reasons why Abrams, 44, has a chance to become the first woman black governor of America. Describe someone as "commander of the room" and you usually conjure up an image of gravitas – a man, probably white, in costume, emitting an oratory amount. Abrams is a woman with big bads, natural hair and a youthful look, with a puzzled smile and a gap between her front teeth. She has as much chance to get an idea of ​​tax policy or Star Trek as to invoke the spirit of justice. Yet when she speaks, all kinds of people – from blacks in rural communities to yuppies "resistance moms" around Atlanta to this crowd of brutal electric workers – go quiet and listen. In a democrat Party divided and desperate for new faces, Abrams is already becoming a national star. "I know talent when I see it," says Valerie Jarrett, a former Barack Obama adviser, who tells me that she sees the same kind of "unusual" skills at Abrams: "I see somebody. one who campaigns authentically, who has character and integrity, is resilient and gracious, and who is able to take a long-term view and ignore a lot of noise. "

can win is another question. Georgia has grown in size as its demography has changed, and November could bring a national democratic wave led by women and people of color. Abrams will benefit from a well-funded campaign and a divisive opponent, Secretary of State for Georgia Brian Kemp, who emerged from a second round on July 24. But in a state that has not elected a democratic governor in two decades, Abrams remains a loser. "There is no doubt that the state is diversifying, but that does not mean that a conservative state has suddenly become liberal," says Whit Ayres, a Washington-based Republican pollster who has worked extensively in the United States. Georgia. All the charisma, money and momentum of Abrams will not matter if political mathematics does not add up.

On the other hand, if it can succeed, the implications would be profound, not just for Georgia, but for the entire region and potentially the nation. Since Bill Clinton was re-elected in 1996 with a triangulation strategy, Democrats have attempted to win Republican territory by appealing to white centrist voters. The idea was to combine them with the grbadroots democrats, but he often left the white voters cold and base without enthusiasm. The Abrams campaign is based on the proposition that an irresistible candidate can be elected in the South with a progressive message that attracts liberal whites and minorities in polls in greater numbers.

If she's right, Abrams could show wandering Democrats a new way, says Ilyse Hogue, head of the NARAL abortion rights group. "We have often seen women run like men, and Stacey does not," says Hogue. "The scenario of how you present yourself has been determined for eons by white men who tell everyone what to do, and Stacey Abrams said," No thanks. "His campaign is not just a game, it's an act of imagination, and so, like any unprecedented effort, it's likely to fail."

" My sister says I live in the gap between gentrification and the ghetto, "says Abrams happily in his three-story home on the east side of Atlanta on a recent Saturday night. She has just returned from a lightning trip to New York and San Francisco, touring with Late Seth Meyers, fundraising and hawking her new book, Minority Leader, because what's better than a woman from her? Business-romance-lawyer-activist-politician make time, really, that to write a memoir and go on tour?

Since Abrams is single and lives alone, a rare night at home is the only Opportunity to see his family together. Two of his five brothers and sisters, Richard, 41, and Jeanine, 36, brought their children for a dinner. Salad and spaghetti in her living room and dining room, which is lined floor to ceiling with the family. photos, African art and books: Aristotle, Elmore Leonard, Neil Gaiman, Robert Caro. The brothers and sisters kidding as the children tear each other apart. As Richard, a soft-spoken social worker, teases Jeanine, a microbiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about the weight of her cat Pepper, Abrams stands behind her sister's back and shows her the circumference of the cat. "He's looking at you," she smiled. "Like," You will give me this food, or I will kill you. ""

Abrams is campaigning at a barbecue restaurant in Atlanta on July 2

Akasha Rabut for TIME

Abrams was born into a family that his Carolyn's mother called them "poor distinguished" because they were looking at PBS and reading books but did not have any money. "Carolyn has already abandoned the third grade because she could not pay segregated school bus fees Abrams, the second-oldest, was born in Wisconsin while her mother was a graduate student, but spent most of her childhood in Gulfport, Miss. Carolyn was good for a job as a librarian, earning less than the school janitor. "They left for education, but when they returned to Mississippi, they were still black," Abrams says. about his The house was tiny, and sometimes the electricity or the water was cut off, but his parents' code was strict: "Go to church, go to school, take care about each other. "Doing nothing, they say, was an excuse does nothing

When Abrams was in high school, his parents were called to Methodist ministry, and the family moved to Atlanta so that they can go to the seminary. Abrams graduated from Spelman College and Yale Law School, then became a tax specialist and worked for the city of Atlanta. She also wrote love novels under a pseudonym and launched several companies. One, a bottled water company for babies, has led another, a payment company that serves small businesses. The idea came from the experience of the water company, who could not afford to wait for the payment after filling the orders. "People say," Oh, it's so obvious. Why has nobody ever thought of it? Says Lara Hodgson, Abrams' business partner.

In 2006, Abrams went to the House of Representatives, winning a Democratic primary for a free seat. In the legislature, she has earned a reputation for being detail-oriented and not afraid to question her elders. "If she challenged you on one point, she was going to be right," says Carolyn Hugley, a 25-year-old home veteran who has become one of her mentors. "As a woman, sometimes men do not like that kind of thing." Abrams was known as a talented speaker and bill reader, but other Democrats have occasionally bridled to his know-all trends, according to Bill Crane, an Atlantica.

Abrams used his legal experience to review the text of the proposals. At the beginning of his term, when a Republican legislator had trouble explaining the details of his own bill, she sent him a helpful note, then another, and another. Finally, he sat next to her and let her explain, she recalls. At the end of the hearing, she was the only one voting against the bill, a minor regulatory measure. The republican was shocked; why had she helped? "I said," Listen, I think your bill is a bad idea. I just do not think it should be a bad law, "says Abrams. "After that, Republicans brought me their bills and asked me to look at them.They did not always agree with me, but they knew that they could trust me and all of them disagreements were not to become a battle. "

In 2010, Abrams was elected leader of the minority, becoming the first woman to lead a caucus in one or the other house of the legislature Georgia, which had been mainly run by the Democrats since the reconstruction, was undergoing a rapid shift towards Republican rule, and the Republican wave of 2010 had put all state offices in the hands of the GOP. Abrams has been able to gain influence for the outnumbered democrats by mastering the problems and exploiting Republican divisions.The current GOP governor, Nathan Deal, is a pro-business moderator who has opposed his n veto to the laws on religious freedom and firearms. Abrams worked with him on the criminal justice reforms that have been hailed nationwide for reducing prison costs without increasing crime. She has worked with Republicans to get the largest public funding program for public transportation and prevent the removal of a popular scholarship program. In the governorate's primary, his Democratic opponent, former legislator Stacey Evans, accused Abrams of being too willing to cooperate with Republicans.

If elected, Abrams promises to be "the governor of public education", reviving Georgia 's education budget after years. painful cuts. She would expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act and improve the state's services for people like her brother Walter, a heroin addict and ex-inmate whose story tells that she has a personal connection with criminal justice and mental health. The Georgian economy is flourishing, but Abrams points out that wealth is not widely shared and promises to make state development more inclusive by encouraging small businesses.

Abrams occupies liberal positions on social issues, but considers herself pragmatist. She likes to boast of having received a Friend of Labor Award and an "A" rating from the Georgia Chamber of Commerce the same year. Still, some of her most proud achievements are not bills she's enacted but Republican efforts that she has stopped. In 2011, as a Democrat appointed to a commission to study the state's tax system, she argued that the Republican proposal to lower taxes while increasing the sales tax on cable service would increase the amount paid by most people. When the committee ignored her, she asked the chair for an electronic copy of the tax model used to develop the bill. "He said yes, because he did not know what it was," she told me with a smile. Abrams took the data back home and reorganized it by income level to show that 82% of families in Georgia would see their taxes go up. She organized her findings by legislative district, put her in a color spreadsheet, and left a copy on every desk in the house. Abrams can boast of having stopped alone the biggest tax increase in the history of Georgia

Back at Abrams, the debate bounces between family stories, politics and politics. The cattle interview reminds Abrams of its opposition to legalizing henhouses in the hinterland, on the grounds that local jurisdictions should decide. "Some of these libertarians, it's like they read the back of the manifesto but not at all, "she says curtly. Brothers and sisters, now nearly 70 years old, returned to Mississippi after the seminary, where they were pushed to scarcity to help parishioners who had been forgotten by FEMA's recovery from Hurricane Katrina. The Abrams Church, said Richard, was the only place in their separate two-stop city that served both Blacks and Whites.

Abrams remembers how his father stopped the graduation of his older sister Andrea when the director was wrong. interrupted another awards ceremony when only half of the honors of his sister Leslie were announced. (Andrea is now a professor of anthropology, Leslie a federal judge.) In the context of the Abrams victory speech, it can be heard shouting: "It's my daughter!" When she filed his candidacy for the governor, his parents surprised him. night to appear on the Capitol. "My father is more stubborn than me," Abrams says with a sigh.

The next morning, Abrams jumps out of the church to sleep and catch up on his favorite show, Supernatural. Her warrior angels and her demons "create very interesting theological questions," she wonders, settling on her cream couch to talk about the campaign. In his first victory, Abrams got 76% of the democratic vote and won 153 of the 159 counties; 199,681 more Democrats voted than during the last mid-primary four years ago, an increase of 57%. In November, Deal won the race for the governor with 202,000 votes.

Abrams says his biggest obstacle is to make people believe that victory is possible. "Georgia is different now, but it's hard for people to believe that change is happening," she says. "You do not notice a change when it's gradual.My campaign is trying to exploit it, but I'm asking people not to believe their eyes."

Despite his state-of-the-art reputation Red, Georgia is more diverse than Virginia and bluer than Alabama, two southern states that have recently elected Democrats. on the expansion of health care. The economic focus of Virginia Governor Ralph Northam and Alabama Senator Doug Jones contrasted with those who opposed culture and war whose messages echoed those of President Trump. Jones' victory also highlighted the power of black voters, especially in the South. Kemp, the opponent of Abrams, aired primary ads that threatened him with a loaded rifle and promised to personally gather illegal immigrants

although the central priorities of Abrams are budget-oriented, it is to the left of most Georgian voters. polarizing issues such as gun rights, Confederate monuments and kneeling NFL players. But it has an underrated ability to connect with rural whites and workers along clbad lines. His campaign signs appear in the suburban white and wealthy neighborhoods, and some advance polls have shown him ahead of Kemp. Crane, the badyst, says that Georgians generally want a conservative of common sense, not a "politically incorrect conservative," as Kemp himself calls it.

Abrams argues that if Obama could lose Georgia just 5 points without campaigning, it can catch up. difference with a rigorous campaign, including a well-endowed field program. His campaign raised $ 2.75 million in the last quarter from more than 30,000 donors; The state software rejected the file containing his campaign report on finances because it was too large. "We are building a new coalition that has not been built for a Democrat in Georgia in the current era," says campaign director Lauren Groh-Wargo. "That's what it's going to take, communities of color and progressive whites are in the majority." The problem for Democrats is that they do not necessarily vote, and even many Abrams allies doubt that she can get enough to do it. "She must make a record of minority stake and then carry 25% to 30% of the white vote," says Crane.

Abrams has never faced a real Republican opponent before, but she has some experience beating the GOP with her new coalition.In 2011, Republicans used the redistricting process to tilt the electoral map in their favor, by procuring enough seats in the state house to win a two-thirds majority based on the expected voting patterns.A qualified majority would allow the GOP to adopt constitutional amendments, so in the 2012 elections, Abrams s 39 is given it's mission to prevent them from getting it. To do this, the Democrats had to win four Republican seats.

Abrams recruited candidates like Kimberly Alexander, a former black IBM executive in an exurban, mostly white Paulding County. She trained them, provided them with staff, and wrote their talking points and mailings. She traveled the country with a 20-page slide deck to convince national Democratic backers to intervene. She commissioned the candidates, who signed a contract committing them to a grueling schedule, to focus on education, the economy and good government. "The Republicans had the majority of voters, but they had drawn in each of these districts a significant minority population that they presumed did not vote," Abrams explains. "And they badumed that there was no universe where this minority population would form a coalition with the white Democrats to win."

Today Alexander is a state representative, as are just enough of the other Abrams recruits that Republicans have never achieved two-thirds mark. These are successes like these that make Abrams believe that she can do what few thought possible. And now, she's coming to Georgia

This story is part of TIME's special 6th August issue on the American South. Find out more from number here .

This appears in the August 6, 2018 issue of TIME.