Stacey Abrams in State of Georgia Archives

On Education: Help students from early learning thru post-secondary school

As House Minority Leader, I promote legislation that helps students from the earliest days of learning through the post-secondary academics.

We protect the rights of parents to help their children learn, support educators committed to holistic student achievement, and we demand well-equipped and safe schools where children have not only the freedom but the capacity to grow.

On Abortion: Expand reproductive freedom to under-served areas

On Abortion: Don't jeopardize access to birth control

Abrams: Legal. Led efforts to weaken 20-week abortion ban & to block TARP (Targeted Restrictions on Abortion Providers). "Staunch defender of reproduction choices."

Kemp: Ban. Supports "Heartbeat Bill" outlawing abortions after 6 weeks. As governor, will "sign the toughest abortion laws in the country."

Contraception: Allow employers to withhold contraceptive coverage from employees if disagree with it morally?

Abrams: No specific stand, but opposes Judge Kavanaugh for potentially jeopardizing "access to birth control."

Kemp: Yes. As governor, will sign a "religious freedom" bill that would allow withholding of contraceptive coverage.

On Budget & Economy: Invest in community businesses

On Civil Rights: No discrimination, including against LGBTQ

On Civil Rights: Reflect on terrible Confederacy in museums, not monuments

On Civil Rights: No discrimination, including against LGBTQ

On Civil Rights: Welcome everyone, instead of "religious liberty"

The governor's veto infuriated religious conservatives who considered the measure, House Bill 757, their top priority. Last year's Supreme Court ruling legalizing same-sex weddings galvanized their efforts. In stark terms, the governor said earlier this year that he would reject any measure that "allows discrimination in our state in order to protect people of faith." Rooting his critique in biblical language, he urged fellow Republicans to "recognize that the world is changing."

Rep. Abrams voted NO; passed Senate 37-18-1 Mar.16; passed House 104-65-11 Mar.16

On Civil Rights: Basic fairness: we must ensure that every vote is counted

On Civil Rights: Voter suppression is an existential crisis in the US

On Civil Rights: Those who paid debt to society should be re-enfranchised

On Civil Rights: Upholding military transgender ban is an abomination

ABRAMS: I think it's an abomination. These are men and women who have protected our country for the last few years, since President Obama opened up the military. What the conservative bloc of the Supreme Court has done is said that they are willing to put us in harm's way to suborn discrimination and bigotry coming from the White House. There is no rational purpose for this. There is no rational need.

On Corporations: Invest in community businesses

On Crime: Voted YES on criminalizing "up-skirting"

On Crime: Voted NO on 10-year minimum for assaulting a cop

MY VOTE: NO. I disagree with the increase of mandatory minimums and the lack of discretion available to judges to fully determine if extenuating circumstances are present.

On Crime: Justice should not be determined by your paycheck

On Drugs: Expand list of conditions for medical marijuana

On Drugs: Add fentanyl to list of criminalized opioids

On Drugs: Allow onsite testing for drug-free workplace program

Summary by eDrugTest.com: Georgia has a voluntary drug testing law. For companies that wish to qualify for a 7.5% discount on their workers' compensation premiums they must comply with this law.

Legislative outcome:Passed House 160-2-18, Vote #429 on Apr/20/07; Rep. Abrams voted YES; passed Senate 56-0-0, Vote #175 on Mar/27/07; Signed by Gov. Perdue on May/24/07

On Drugs: For medical marijuana; open to legalizing recreational use

On Education: Chief Turnaround Officers for low-performing schools

MY VOTE: YES. HB 338 is an important bill that creates a path for empirical evidence of the needed supports for chronically low-performing schools. Specifically, the bill will require the collection of necessary evidence to diagnose the causes of struggling schools--like determining whether students have proper nutrition, hearing tests, and eyeglasses--needs that must be addressed before any state intervention takes place. Moreover, the Chief Turnaround Officer must now hold extensive credentialing in the field of public education.

On Education: Voted NO on $42M more tax credits for private schools

MY VOTE: NO. I do not support the public funding of private education, as (1) public schools are available to all children; (2) private schools are permitted to discriminate in their choice of students; & (3) our persistent underfunding of education argues against any diversion of funds.

On Education: No money for school vouchers

On Education: Must offer many paths for higher education

On Education: Needs-based college tuition for low-income students

Abrams: Yes. Includes needs-based aid for low-income students, restoring tuition-free certificates, and funding Georgia 2025 program.

Kemp: No stand found.

On Energy & Oil: Clean energy key to jobs & innovation

On Environment: Stay on top of environmental waste & clean-up

On Environment: Hurricane recovery is a 10-month process, not 10 days

ABRAMS: I've gone through a hurricane. It's a devastating process. And it takes months for recovery to happen.

Q: What's your message to residents of the area? You could be elected governor in a couple weeks.

ABRAMS: Number one, I've been through this myself. I understand that it's not just the physical plant that's a problem. It's making sure that people have access to the resources they need. And often when the cameras turn off and when people go home and stop volunteering, that's when the real trouble starts. I will leverage the responsibility of the governor, the ability to connect with state and local officials and federal officials to make certain that resources don't just end when the memory of the storm passes for the average person. And I think that's what you need. Someone who's thinking about this not as a three-day or three-week return but really as a 10-month, 12-month recovery period.

On Families & Children: Learning begins at birth

On Families & Children: Learning begins at birth

On Families & Children: We must help our most vulnerable citizens

On Families & Children: Sometimes sex offenders get parental consent

Legislative outcome:Passed House 131-22-27; Vote #1075 on Apr/04/08; Rep. Stacey Abrams voted NO; passed Senate 41-8-7; Vote #961 on Apr/04/08; Signed by Governor Sonny Perdue on May/13/08

On Foreign Policy: We've returned to isolationism, driven by fear-mongering

We've, unfortunately, returned to what can often be cast as sort of the know-nothing time of our foreign policy. When we were an isolationist country, that is much of what we're seeing now, only instead of it being grounded in a sense that America is stronger by itself it's actually couched more, I believe, because of the leader we have, in racism and xenophobia and sexism and homophobia, misogyny. And it's driven by a fear-mongering that is undermining exactly who we should be.

On Foreign Policy: Our moral credibility in the world has been diminished

On Foreign Policy: Representation matters in our foreign service

On Foreign Policy: Concerned China building infrastructure, relationships

On Free Trade: Tariffs on Chinese steel are a terrible idea

Abrams: No. They are "a terrible idea" & have triggered major concerns in many sectors of the Georgia economy.

Kemp: "Supports whatever decision the president makes on

On Free Trade: Trade policy should not be based on brinksmanship

The only solution will be to engage in trade policy and a trade engagement that is not based on brinksmanship, which is what we've seen play out for the last few years. For many states, our agricultural sector is the number-one industry. When you cut off those who are exporting our goods, you are hurting our farmers at home. They cannot afford it. And we are undermining our national security by undermining our economic security.

On Government Reform: Head of a voter registration group; focus on minorities

Kemp advocated for stricter voter ID laws to prevent what he called the threat of illegal voters casting ballots and Abrams contending those new rules could disenfranchise minorities, the disabled and the elderly.

But they clashed the sharpest during the 2014 after Abrams new voter registration group, the New Georgia Project, announced ambitious goals to register 800,000 minority voters within a decade. The group said it submitted 86,000 voter registration forms during the 2014 cycle, but Kemp's office argued that tens of thousands of applications had not been properly submitted. The voter group supported a coalition that sued Kemp's office again in 2016 over the cancellation of nearly 35,000 registration applications from 2013 to 2016 due to mismatched information.

On Government Reform: Exact-match process violates Voting Rights Act

MY VOTE: NO. HB 268 would negatively impact reforms recently agreed to by the Secretary of State in the federal settlement of the "exact match" federal voting rights lawsuit and would likely lead to further expensive and time-consuming litigation. Furthermore, it likely violates the First Amendment, Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the National Voter Registration Act.

On Government Reform: Stop redistricting voters of color to dilute their votes

MY VOTE: NO. Voters of color are facing increased inconvenience by repeated shifts in their districts, in order to accommodate diminished GOP voting strength. With each redrawing of the lines, voters of color are shifted to new legislators and divided from neighbors.

On Government Reform: Protect voter's rights against voter suppression tactics

On Government Reform: Founded voter registration project

On Government Reform: Deliberate interference & disenfranchisement in `18 election

[VIDEO CLIP] ABRAMS: This is not a speech of concession, because concession means to acknowledge an action is right, true, or proper.[END VIDEO]

Q: Abrams is now planning to launch a federal lawsuit against the state for what she called gross mismanagement of the election. Leader Abrams joins us. You said that "Democracy failed in Georgia," referring to, as you called it, incompetence and mismanagement. But do you think that there was deliberate interference in the election?

ABRAMS: Yes. And I believe it began eight years ago with the systematic disenfranchisement of more than a million voters. It continued with the underfunding and disinvestment in polling places, in training, and in the management of the county delivery of services. And I think it had its pinnacle in this race. There has been a dramatic discrepancy in the way absentee ballots are both allocated & counted across the 159 counties.

On Government Reform: Disenfranchisement was death by 1,000 cuts

STACY ABRAMS: Maintaining clean voter rolls is absolutely appropriate, but the vigor with which he did so--a perfect example is the 92-year-old civil rights activist who's lived in the West End of Atlanta for more than 40 years, has voted in every single election since 1968, and was removed from the polls. She went to vote, and had to take more than 2 hours to get a provisional ballot. This is someone who has never failed to vote. The problem we have is that it's death by 1,000 cuts. It's not sufficient to simply purge voters from the rolls for inactivity. He removed voters who were eligible. And the larger issue is this. Trust in our democracy relies on believing that there are good actors who are making this happen. And he was a horrible actor who benefited from his perfidy.

On Government Reform: Sued in 2016 to stop "exact match" on voter registration

STACEY ABRAMS: Absolutely. I was part of a coalition that sued him in 2016 to force him to stop using this process. And a federal judge agreed with us, said that he had unlawfully canceled more than 33,000 registrations. And they forced him to restore those registrations. In response, the Republicans passed a law in the 2017 legislative session to allow him to do it again. And so the challenge is twofold. One is that we know this is a flawed system that has a disproportionate effect on people of color. But it also has the ability to erode trust in our system.

On Government Reform: Fair Fight Georgia helped Biden and Democratic Senate

Since her first governor run in 2018, Abrams has since escalated her organizing and mobilizing efforts with Fair Fight, the group she founded in the aftermath of that election, and offered a strong closing pitch to voters to "make a plan to vote early" leading up to Nov. 3.

"One of the ways we were able to flip Georgia was because I have been working on it for ten years," Abrams went on. "I know the work we did across this country through Fair Fight 2020 made certain we had enough states that flipped back that we could work together to make certain Joe Biden became president, and now I'm focused on getting the last piece across the finish line, and that is the U.S. Senate race on January 5th in Georgia."

On Government Reform: Ensure everyone trusts the system, and it's worthy of that

On Government Reform: Only obligation we have is make sure every vote is counted

On Government Reform: You don't win county by county; you win person by person

On Gun Control: Voted NO on "campus carry;" it won't make students safer

House Bill 859 would legalize firearms at all public colleges in Georgia. "If the intent of HB 859 is to increase safety of students on college campuses, it is highly questionable that such would be the result," Deal wrote in his veto message.

The gun measure, known as the "campus carry" bill, was long sought by conservatives and Second Amendment activists who cast it as a crucial safety measure for students, faculty and administrators to protect themselves.

Deal [had requested the legislature] to exempt on-campus child care facilities & office space in a separate measure, but they declined to make changes.

Rep. Abrams voted NO; passed Senate 34-17-5 Mar.11; passed House 113-59-8 Feb.16

On Government Reform: The electoral college is racist and classist

On Gun Control: Gun-carry license doesn't apply to "campus carry"

On Gun Control: State should enact reasonable restrictions on guns

On Gun Control: AR-15s are not necessary on our streets

ABRAMS: In Georgia, you introduce legislation to start conversations. I am happy to work with the legislature to figure out how we make an assault weapons ban work. But what I fundamentally believe is that we have to have commonsense gun safety legislation. I am someone who supports the Second Amendment, who knows how to shoot, who knows how to hunt, but I believe that our responsibility is to make certain that the most vulnerable in our society do not face those who are irresponsible with their weapons. AR-15s are not necessary on our streets. Semiautomatic weapons have to be put under a certain level of responsible control. And I believe that I can work with Democrats and Republicans to come up with commonsense gun safety legislation.

On Health Care: Expand Medicaid; explore universal coverage

On Health Care: Let ObamaCare plans cover abortion

OnTheIssues Interpretation: ObamaCare requires that healthcare plans fund abortions; this state law would remove that stipulation from Georgia insurance plans offered under ObamaCare. Voting NO means abortion coverage would be required in healthcare plans.

Legislative Outcome: Passed Senate 37-18-1 on March 18, vote #676; passed House 105-64-7 on March 18, vote #795; Rep. Stacey Abrams voted NO; signed by Gov. Deal April 21

On Health Care: Medicaid expansion for reduced cost & preexisting conditions

ABRAMS: I don't think that he's wrong. I think that, as a national conversation, there certainly should be an ongoing review of what Medicare-for-All can do. But a single state cannot make that change. Georgia does not have the financial capacity to provide that type of coverage. That is a federal conversation. In Georgia, we have to do the fundamentals, including the expansion of Medicaid. That's how we provide access to health care. That's how we reduce costs. That's how we protect preexisting conditions. My focus is on how I can serve Georgia, and that means a focus on Medicaid expansion.

On Health Care: Paying for uncompensated care brings money back

ABRAMS: Georgia spends about $1.75 billion per year on uncompensated care. That's health care costs. By expanding Medicaid, we can join states like Kentucky that cut that number in half. That's savings that will go directly into providing access. My plan is to put money back into the pockets of hardworking Georgians. And all of the plans I have proposed, which are detailed, specific, and have pay-fors, all of those programs can be done under our current budget in the state of Georgia. What's more important is that the economic benefit to our state is dramatic, thousands of more jobs, thousands of good-paying jobs, access to health care coverage, and improvement for our state overall.

Q: So, you're telling Georgia families that none of them are going to have to pay higher taxes with you as governor?

ABRAMS: I do not intend to raise taxes. That is not the necessity.

On Health Care: Allow asbestos lawsuits before physical impairment occurs

Summary by the Mesothelioma Center: Georgia enacted a revised version of the Asbestos and Silica Litigation Reform law on May 1, 2007. Plaintiffs with asbestos-related cancers must provide evidence of physical impairment. Georgia also attempts to limit the use of information obtained from mass asbestos screenings sponsored by personal injury lawyers.

Legislative outcome: [Voting YES establishes stricter rules to file lawsuit for asbestos damage. Voting NO keeps the existing rules, allowing asbestos lawsuits before physical impairment is proven]. Passed House 156-1-23, Vote #321 on Apr/17/07; Rep. Abrams voted NO; passed Senate 36-3-17, Vote #444 on Apr/20/07; Signed by Gov. Perdue, Apr/30/07.

On Health Care: Tax breaks for high deductible insurance; no aid for insured

Summary by the CBPP:Georgia created new tax breaks for high-deductible health plans. Almost 1.7 million Georgians--20%t of all residents under age 65--are uninsured. Almost 2/3 of them have incomes below 200% of the poverty line. Georgia's plan does not attempt to help these low-income individuals obtain insurance. Instead the plan's main target is uninsured people with incomes over $50,000.

Legislative outcome:Passed Senate 36-12-8, Vote #623 on Feb/26/08; Passed House 148-2-30, Vote #1070 on Apr/04/08; Rep. Abrams voted YES; Signed by Gov. Perdue, May/7/08.

On Health Care: His personal debt was from caring for father with cancer

On Homeland Security: Give military base residents tuition & teaching certificates

• HB 222: Allows a member of the Georgia National Guard or a member of a reserve component of the armed forces of the United States located in Georgia to be classified as a legal resident under eligibility requirements for HOPE scholarships and grants. MY VOTE: YES
• HB 224: Amends the 'Quality Basic Education Act' to allow military students the ability to attend any school within their school system beginning in the 2017-2018 school year, where space is available. This legislation defines a "military student" as any student whose parent is a military service member who lives on or off a military base. MY VOTE: YES
• HB 245: Requires the Georgia Professional Standards Commission to implement a process allowing military spouses to qualify for temporary teaching certificates, teaching certificates by endorsement, or expedited teaching certificates when moving to Georgia. MY VOTE: YES

On Immigration: Colleges need not act as immigration enforcement officers

MY VOTE: NO. Institutions of higher learning should not be compelled to act as immigration enforcement officers for any branch of government. More concerning, if the institution violates the policy, all students would be punished. For example, if a school violates the policy, any HOPE Grant recipient could lose his or her funding, regardless of immigration status.

On Immigration: Advocates a clean DREAM Act

Abrams: Yes. Advocates a clean DREAM Act legislation with path to citizenship.

Kemp: No. End DACA, which "provides amnesty for illegal immigrants--many of whom are adults, not children, & includes those with criminal records."

Immigration: Support path to citizenship for America's 11 million illegal immigrants?

Abrams: No stand found.

Kemp: No. In ad, said he wants to round up "criminal illegals" in his pickup & take them home himself. Will crack down on illegal immigration.

On Jobs: For living wage and right to form unions

On Jobs: For living wage and right to form unions

On Principles & Values: Oppose monument to Ten Commandments at State Capitol

• The Preamble to the Georgia Constitution;
• The part of the Declaration of Independence which states that men 'are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights'
• and the Ten Commandments.

Legislative Outcome: Passed Senate 40-10-3 on March 12, vote #619; passed House 138-37-5 on March 3, Rep. Abrams voted NO; vote #663; signed by Gov. Deal April 29.

On Principles & Values: Prefers organizing systems for change to legislating

Our responsibility is to always have a forward vision that assumes that we will be better than we were. That's been the experiment of the United States. Our national experiment has always been about recognizing that we make deeply, deeply flawed decisions, that we have been inhumane in ways that are a shame to our national history, but why we are who we are is that we confront those challenges and we try to improve.

On Principles & Values: Election loss: Something being legal does not make it right

On Principles & Values: Run for the job you want; I'm best on executive side

On Social Security: We must help our most vulnerable citizens

On Tax Reform: Ask everyone to do their fair share

I support legislation that promotes shared responsibility: legislation that fixes government so it works for everyone, promotes democracy and civil engagement, and protects taxpayer's investments. We must reject attempts to limit success to the privileged few and to restrict personal liberty.

This balance--fostering a broad range of opportunity while fighting government infringement on our freedoms--this balance is the objective of the Georgia House Democratic Caucus.

On Tax Reform: Keep graduated income tax instead of 5.4% flat tax

MY VOTE: NO. While this plan will close important loopholes that penalize low-income married couples, in its current form, the legislation increases taxes on single low-income taxpayers.

On Technology: We must invest in public infrastructure

On Technology: Creates commission on Transit Governance and Funding

On War & Peace: US should be judicious & careful with our use of military

On Welfare & Poverty: Help working poor get a leg up

On Welfare & Poverty: No mandatory drug testing for food stamp recipients

Legislative Outcome: Passed Senate 21-32-3 on March 20, vote #729; passed House 100-67-13 on March 20, vote #729; Rep. Stacey Abrams voted NO; signed by Gov. Deal April 29.

On Welfare & Poverty: Reducing the top not enough on income inequality

On Abortion: Georgia law would investigate women for miscarriage

On Abortion: Rights should be sacrosanct regardless of state lines

On Abortion: Politicians are not scientists, don't set arbitrary limits

On Crime: $25 million in state grants for police salary raises

If elected, Abrams plans to provide $25 million in state grants to local agencies for salary raises and plans to raise base salary for state patrol, correctional officers and community supervision officers to approximately $50,000 per year. She has discussed plans to develop initiatives to increase law enforcement accountability and accountability.

On Crime: We cannot punish our way into public safety

On Families & Children: Supports Plan B and emergency contraceptives

Kemp has vowed to continue to fight for life, while Abrams said she would repeal Georgia's abortion law, if elected. Abrams argues that women should have the freedom to make their own medical decisions and that forcing women to carry a pregnancy places women at risk of poverty and maternal mortality, especially as Georgia is in the top five states with the highest maternal deaths. Abrams plans to increase availability of Plan B and emergency contraceptives, if elected.

On Government Reform: Lawsuit of 80,000 complaints against 2018 Governor election

"I will always acknowledge outcomes to elections but will never deny access to every voter," she said. Abrams assured the audience that she eventually recognized that Kemp won the election in 2018, after she first said it was "rigged."

"In 2018, I began my speech on Nov. 16 acknowledging that Gov. Kemp had won the election. I then proceeded to lay out in grave detail the challenges faced by voters under his leadership as secretary of state--80,000 complaints, and it took four years of federal investigation in a lawsuit," she said. "We didn't win every single claim, but we forced massive changes to the election laws." Earlier this month, an Obama-appointed federal judge dismissed major contentions in Abrams's legal case that her defeat to Kemp in 2018 was illegitimate.

On Government Reform: 2020 election integrity law is the "new Jim Crow"

Kemp retorted that Abrams joined the Democratic bandwagon that claimed S.B. 202, the election-integrity law passed in

On Gun Control: Opposes constitutional carry; supports background checks

Abrams and opponents of the new law say they believe it will lead to increased gun violence and she plans to repeal the law. She also plans to push for a new law that requires background checks for gun sales through private purchases and gun shows, as background checks are currently only required if purchased from a licensed dealer.

On Jobs: Constitutional amendment to bring casinos & online betting

Kemp has touted his leadership landing Georgia a top state for business for eight years and a record low unemployment rate of 2.8% as of July.

Part of Abrams' economic plan includes leading efforts for a constitutional amendment to bring casinos to Georgia and legislation allowing online sports betting, with some proceeds possibly used to fund education initiatives. Much of her plan focuses on increasing wages, small businesses and rural workforce.

In 2019, Kemp launched Georgia's Rural Strike Team to help market and train rural communities seeking businesses.