Stacey Abrams, a Democrat who ran for the governor of Georgia in both 2018 and 2022, said in a recent interview that criticism of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) is synonymous with “an attack on democracy.”
Speaking to Al Sharpton of MSNBC last week, the former gubernatorial candidate said that left-wing DEI programs are key aspects of American democracy, economy and education, claiming that conservative backlash against DEI initiatives are really lodged against these three fields.
Stacey Abrams:
"The attack on DEI is an attack on Democracy." pic.twitter.com/Qv7xgBe0hf
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) April 22, 2024
Abrams also said that voters “should be terrified” of Donald Trump, who she said is trying to regain his seat in the White House to “strip us of our rights,” erase “economic progress” made under the Biden administration and “undermine democracy.”
She added that the United States has “seen victory,” presumably referring to the election of Democrat President Joe Biden in 2020, but emphasized that the country “cannot rest” there and be under the impression that the “victory” is “impermeable and impervious to harm.”
Abrams further stated that Americans must persist in efforts to maintain programs like DEI that have been protected by the Biden administration, saying that “voting is not magic” and that citizens must be in “constant engagement” with political issues to be “moving ourselves forward.”
The same democracy that the former minority leader in the Georgia legislature claims is under attack because of scrutiny surrounding DEI was also accused of having “failed” in 2018, when the then-gubernatorial candidate lost her bid for office.
During an interview at the time, Abrams said she believed there was “deliberate interference” with the election results, adding that it “began” eight years earlier with administrative issues such as lack of proper training and failure to invest in voting systems.
She also criticized the system for being forced to re-do the Republican primary election earlier that year due to a significant number of voters not receiving accurate ballots.
In the same interview, Abrams said that there was an “obstruction of the administration of elections in the state of Georgia” that contributed to her loss. The former candidate lost the 2018 election to Gov. Brian Kemp (R-GA) by only a few percentage points, leaving her with 48.8% of the vote and her opponent with 50.2%.
