Delivering the response to a State of the Union address is frequently a thankless job, but by just about any measure, Democrat Stacey Abrams delivered a genuinely impressive rebuttal to President Donald Trump.
Opening with a personal history of her family, Abrams was both optimistic in her assessment of what America can be, and brutally direct in her criticism of Trump.
“My family understood firsthand that while success is not guaranteed, we live in a nation where opportunity is possible,” Abrams said, shortly before explaining that “families’ hopes are being crushed by Republican leadership that ignores real life—or just doesn’t understand it.”
Abrams also called out a number of the Trump administration’s cruelest policies.
“We know bipartisanship could craft a 21st century immigration plan,” she said. “But this administration chooses to cage children and tear families apart.”
Abrams highlighted the right to vote—a key issue for her, since her razor-thin loss to Georgia’s now-Gov. Brian Kemp in the 2018 midterm elections was heavily marred by apparent voter suppression:
We can do so much more: Take action on climate change. Defend individual liberties with fair-minded judges. But none of these ambitions are possible without the bedrock guarantee of our right to vote. Let’s be clear: voter suppression is real. From making it harder to register and stay on the rolls to moving and closing polling places to rejecting lawful ballots, we can no longer ignore these threats to democracy.
Abrams has maintained a high profile since that loss. She has been rumored as a possible challenger for Georgia’s Republican Sen. David Perdue’s Senate seat in 2020, and confirmed shortly after conceding the governor’s race that she does “indeed intend to run for office again.”
You can watch Abrams’ entire address below: