Stacey Yvonne Abrams (born December 9, 1973) is an American politician, lawyer, and author who served in the Georgia House of Representatives from 2007 to 2017, and served as minority leader from 2011 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, she was the party's nominee in the 2018 Georgia gubernatorial election. Abrams lost to Brian Kemp in an election where Kemp was widely accused of voter suppression. Abrams was the first African-American female major-party gubernatorial nominee in the United States. In February 2019, she became the first African-American woman to deliver a response to the State of the Union address.
Abrams, the second of six siblings, was born to Robert and Carolyn Abrams in Madison, Wisconsin, and raised in Gulfport, Mississippi. The family moved to Atlanta, Georgia, where her parents pursued graduate degrees and later became Methodist ministers. She attended Avondale High School, where she was selected for a Telluride Association Summer Program. While in high school, she was hired as a typist for a congressional campaign and at age 17 she was hired as a speechwriter based on the edits she had made while typing.