Abrams speaks for Democrats

ATLANTA -- Stacey Abrams stepped into the brightest spotlight of her political career late Tuesday as she delivered the Democratic response to President Donald Trump's State of the Union address.

The Georgia Democrat introduced herself to the nation months after narrowly losing her bid to become America's first black female governor. Instead, she became the first black woman to deliver a State of the Union response.

Speaking from a union hall in Atlanta, Abrams combined her party's vision of a more unified society with her personal story as a black daughter of the Deep South.

"These were our family values: faith, service, education and responsibility," she said, arguing for "this uncommon grace of community."

"We do not succeed alone," she added. "In these United States, when times are tough, we can persevere because our friends and neighbors will come for us."

Abrams identified Trump as the architect of the 35-day partial government shutdown that ended last month. "The shutdown was a stunt engineered by the president of the United States," Abrams said, "one that defied every tenet of fairness and abandoned not just our people, but our values."

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer selected Abrams to give the Democratic response Tuesday in a nod to her rising political fortunes despite her defeat last year. Encouraged by her ability to push Republican-run Georgia toward battleground status, Schumer is hoping to persuade Abrams to run for a Republican-held Senate seat in 2020 -- two years after she won more votes than any Democrat in Georgia history, including presidential candidates.

Responding to the president's most high-profile speech is one of the toughest jobs in politics -- a role that has tripped up members of both parties in the past.

Abrams spoke in her hometown of Atlanta, with an audience that included workers, activists, labor leaders, health care professionals, educators, entrepreneurs and voters who her aides say had trouble casting their ballots in 2018.

Abrams abandoned her governor's race without a formal concession, asserting that Brian Kemp used his previous post as secretary of state to make it harder for people, particularly minority groups and the poor, to cast ballots. Kemp defended his job performance, but Abrams has still emerged as a leading voting-rights advocate nationally.

"This is the next battle for our democracy, one where all eligible citizens can have their say about the vision we want for our country," Abrams said. "We must reject the cynicism that says allowing every eligible vote to be cast and counted is a 'power grab,'" she added, a reference to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's description of House Democrats' efforts to overhaul U.S. election law.

On Tuesday, Trump offered nods to unity and bipartisanship, with a message about America's place as the world's leading capitalist democracy. Yet he also maintained his hard-line stand on immigration, continuing to cast the southern border as a porous and fundamental threat to Americans' economic security and personal safety.

Abrams argued that a bipartisan immigration overhaul is possible.

Abrams did not broach the multiple investigations dogging Trump, inquiries the president called "ridiculous partisan exercises."

She said she is "very disappointed by the president's approach to our problems." But she added: "I still don't want him to fail. But we need him to tell the truth, and to respect his duties and the extraordinary diversity that defines America."

Information for this article was contributed by Elana Schor of The Associated Press.

A Section on 02/06/2019