A Case Study in Political Ambition: Stacey Abrams and the Heavy Lifter Theory

• In Event: Toward Pluralism in REP/Elections Research: Black Women in Electoral Politics

Abstract

For the first time in almost thirty years, Georgia turned blue. Stacey Abrams and her work through her grassroots organization, Fair Fight Action, were identified as one of the primary reasons for this outcome. When she lost her gubernatorial bid in 2018, the National Democratic Party lobbied hard for her to run for a Senate seat and she was even on the shortlist for Biden’s Vice-Presidential pick. Abrams declined, even as critics called her actions selfish and shortsighted. This brings into sharp view, the understanding of political ambition and its shortcomings when applied to the political behavior of black women. In this piece, I forward a novel theoretical intersectional framework called the heavy lifter theory, to underscore the issues of using paradigms that have long been used to explain white political behavior and applying it to black women.

Author

• Jatia Wrighten, Virginia Commonwealth University