Stacey Abrams has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for her groundbreaking work on voting rights according to Reuters.
Lars Haltbrekken, a Socialist Party member of Norway’s parliament, was the one to nominate the former Georgia gubernatorial candidate.
"Abrams' work follows in Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s footsteps in the fight for equality before the law and for civil rights," Haltbrekken said in a statement. "Abrams’ efforts to complete King’s work are crucial if the United States of America shall succeed in its effort to create fraternity between all its peoples and a peaceful and just society."
Abrams has been lauded for her work in leading a group of activists over the last two years that brought out millions of new voters in Georgia. Their efforts helped turn Georgia from a solidly Republican bastion to a state that was won by Democratic President Joe Biden and sent two Democrats to the Senate in January, a feat that would have been unthinkable in years prior.
According to CNBC, her group Fair Fight got more than 200,000 people of color registered to vote in Georgia.
After losing a 2018 gubernatorial election rife with instances of voter suppression, mismanagement and controversy, Abrams dedicated herself to making voting in Georgia more fair and equitable for everyone living in the state. In addition to her work bringing out thousands of new voters, she raised more than $6 million for now-Senators Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, the first Black and first Jewish senators, respectively, to come from the state.
After being chosen as the new chair of the Democratic National Committee, politician Jaime Harrison specifically cited the work of Abrams as something that needs to be done throughout the country.
"If we can learn anything from this race, if what we learned from Stacey Abrams and what Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff were able to do in Georgia, it’s all about organizing on the ground and you can't just do it right before the election. It has to be continuous and it doesn't stop," Harrison told MSNBC host Joy Reid.
"We now have an African American and a Jewish American senator both representing Georgia and they won convincingly. And that is because of Stacey Abrams, LaTosha Brown and so many grassroots organizations, the Georgia Democratic Party, and they organized. They went into communities, and they didn’t just parachute in two months before the election, they stayed in those communities addressing the issues that people care about," Harrison later told CNN.
Abrams has not said what her next move will be but many believe she will take on Governor of Georgia Brian Kemp in an election rematch. In January, Kemp faced calls to resign from former President Donald Trump, who has hinted that he may support a damaging primary challenge against Kemp. Despite still facing the wrath of other Republicans, groups associated with Kemp are already starting campaign efforts against Abrams even though she hasn't announced anything yet.
“I think it becomes incredibly important for women who are not expected or any community that is often inherently considered disqualified, to declare their intention,” Abrams told CNBC in an interview about her future. “I do not believe in editing ambition, and I think it’s important to say it aloud because it gives other people the sense of authority to also claim their intentions and their goals."
As Haltbrekken noted, King Jr. won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in 1964. Former President Barack Obama
won it in 2009.
As Blavity previously reported, other nominees this year include the Black Lives Matter movement, detained Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and the World Health Organization. The Nobel committee in Oslo will announce the 2021 laureate in October.
