Abrams narrowly lost the 2018 Georgia gubernatorial race.
Former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams will deliver the Democratic Party’s response to President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Tuesday.
“Three weeks ago I called Stacey Abrams and asked her to deliver the response to the State of the Union. I was very delighted when she agreed,” Schumer told reporters. “She has led the charge for voting rights, which is at the root of just about everything else.”
Abrams, an ascending figure in the Democratic Party, narrowly lost to Republican Brian Kemp in Georgia’s 2018 governor’s race. The race was mired in allegations of voter suppression directed toward Kemp, who oversaw the election and resigned as Georgia’s secretary of state after declaring victory.
After the fallout from the election settled, Abrams started voting rights initiative Fair Fight, which aims to fight voter disenfranchisement in Georgia and other states.
“At a moment when our nation needs to hear from leaders who can unite for a common purpose, I am honored to be delivering the Democratic State of the Union response,” Abrams tweeted Tuesday.
Trump will deliver his annual address on Feb. 5 in the House chamber.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi initially invited Trump to give the speech on Jan. 29 but wrote to him during the government shutdown and said the speech needed to be postponed until after the shutdown. After a back-and-forth between the two leaders and the subsequent end of the government shutdown, Pelosi and Trump agreed that the president would give the speech a week later than originally planned.