Stacey Abrams on Tuesday night preached about the value of bipartisan politics, but also slammed President Trump and Republicans in Congress for their role in the recent government shutdown.
Abrams, who is the first black woman to offer an official response to a State of the Union address, called the 35-day spending gap “a stunt engineered by the President of the United States” in a speech lasting fewer than 15 minutes. The shutdown was triggered in December by a breakdown in negotiations over how to fund President Trump’s campaign promise of a southern border wall.
“Just a few weeks ago, I joined volunteers to distribute meals to furloughed federal workers. They waited in line for a box of food and a sliver of hope since they hadn’t received a paycheck in weeks,” she said during her reply, delivered in Atlanta, the capital of in her home state of Georgia. “Making their livelihoods a pawn for political games is a disgrace.”
Despite that criticism, Abrams cited her work reaching across the political aisle as the former minority leader of the Georgia House of Representatives.
“I didn’t always agree with the Republican Speaker or Governor, but I understood that our constituents didn’t care about our political parties — they cared about their lives,” Abrams said. “So, when we had to negotiate criminal justice reform or transportation or foster care improvements, the leaders of our state didn’t shut down — we came together. And we kept our word. It should be no different in our nation’s capital.”
“But instead, families’ hopes are being crushed by Republican leadership that ignores real life or just doesn’t understand it,” she said.
Abrams gained national attention in 2018 when she unsuccessfully ran to become the country’s first African-American female governor as the Democratic candidate in Georgia’s gubernatorial race. On Tuesday, she touched on a myriad of liberal touchstone issues like healthcare, race, immigration, climate change, gun reform, and voter rights. But the Yale-educated tax attorney and part-time romance suspense writer also took the time to talk about her own “lower middle class and working class” upbringing ahead of a possible 2020 bid for the U.S. Senate.
“America has stumbled time and again on its quest towards justice and equality; but with each generation, we have revisited our fundamental truths, and where we falter, we make amends,” she said. “America wins by fighting for our shared values against all enemies: foreign and domestic. That is who we are — and when we do so, never wavering — the state of our union will always be strong.”
