The Ford School of Public Policy continued the inaugural Dean’s Symposium Friday with a discussion on democracy, voting rights, diversity, equity and inclusion with Public Policy Dean Celeste Watkins-Hayes and political activist Stacey Abrams, among other speaker events. The Friday events followed Thursday’s keynote speakers, panels and discussions regarding issues including child care, climate change, racial justice policy, artificial intelligence and technology, including a discussion with U-M alum Cecilia Muñoz, who served as director of the Domestic Policy Council from 2012 to 1017 and director of the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs from 2009 to 1012 under former President Barack Obama.
Nearly 100 University of Michigan students and community members gathered in Annenberg Auditorium Friday afternoon for Watkins-Hayes’ discussion with Abrams.
Abrams served in the Georgia House of Representatives from 2007 to 2017 before she won the 2018 Democratic nomination for Georgia governor, becoming the first Black woman in U.S. history to win a major party gubernatorial nomination. She narrowly lost the election to Brian Kemp, and later accused him of voter suppression. Abrams won the Democratic nomination for governor again in 2022 but again lost to Kemp in the general election.
Abrams has been credited with boosting voter turnout in Georgia, especially during the 2020 presidential election when President Joe Biden narrowly won the state, and in Georgia’s U.S. Senate runoff elections, when the election of Democrats Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff gave Democrats control of the Senate.
After Abrams was introduced to the audience, Watkins-Hayes displayed a virtual message from Johnnetta Cole, the first Black woman to serve as president of Spelman College, a historically Black women’s college. Cole encouraged students to consider themselves the successors in advancing social issues by actively engaging with their passions.
“I urge you to see yourselves as next up, to carry on the movement, for civil rights, for women’s rights, for the rights of LGBTQ (people),”Cole said. “I urge you to carry on the struggle, for (the) attention to disparities that haunt our nation. Whatever issues speak most strongly to you, not only care about them, do something about them.”
Watkins-Hayes and Abrams began the discussion by reflecting on their experiences as student leaders and alumni of Spelman College. Abrams said activism and mentorship have shaped her career.
“You don’t get to act with impunity,” Abrams said. “Activism has risks — that’s why being still is easier. Part of the challenge, and what we both learned at Spelman, is that being righteous does not make you right. Being an activist does not mean that people are going to validate what you do, and there are consequences. Part of leadership is the ability to accept that consequences will happen and to manage those consequences.”
Abrams also spoke about the struggles of facing electoral defeats and the realities of managing public disagreements, especially while remaining committed to serving her community. Abrams said her upbringing in the South and experiences with racism both shaped her gubernatorial run in 2018.
“I don’t define myself by the outcome,” Abrams said. “I grew up in spaces where my outcomes are not only predetermined; they had laws about them. When I stood for governor in 2018, there were so many people who lauded, ‘She’s the first Black woman to ever get the nomination in American history.’ It’s 2018. This is ridiculous. That is not a celebratory moment for me. That is a condemnation of systems.”
Watkins-Hayes asked Abrams to expand on the importance of democratic norms and democratic culture. Abrams responded by reflecting on her gubernatorial election loss, saying she recognized defeat while refusing to ignore the presence of voter suppression. Abrams also said critically examine critically examining election administration and using democratic tools to hold the system accountable is imperative to safeguarding democracy.
“I violated a democratic norm in 2018, I gave a speech acknowledging that I had not won an election but refusing to countenance the existence of voter suppression,” Abrams said. “In the process, I have been lauded, chastened and vilified. I want to be really clear: : I have never once denied the outcome of an election, but I did say that we have the responsibility to question the administration of elections. We should never be a nation that says you can’t ask questions. We should never be in a position where we cannot use the levers and the tools of our democracy to hold our democracy accountable. That’s how we protect democracy.”
When Watkins-Hayes asked Abrams if she would continue her career in politics, she said she is unsure about her future candidacy, but remains committed to increasing representation for marginalized groups.
“I don’t know for sure what I will run again, but I’m not done with politics,” Abrams said. “(Politics) is an effective tool for policy, and therefore, I refuse to say no to it. I cannot be defined by someone else’s expectations of me or the limitations they would put on me. There aren’t enough of us to quit because the system didn’t change overnight.”
Abrams said some of this work toward election transparency has manifested in her work at Fair Count, an organization she founded in 2019 that aims to promote accurate Census reporting and combat the long-term effects of gerrymandering on marginalized communities.
“Gerrymandering is when politicians pick their voters, not voters picking their politicians,” Abrams said. “So, I created an organization called Fair Count, which focuses on the Census because gerrymandering begins with the U.S. Census every 10 years. We seem to invade the privacy of others and their communities whose legitimate cynicism and fear convince them not to participate. Then they live for 10 years, 20 years, 30 years with the consequences of their lived realities and their refusal to share data. Fair Count focuses on how (to) ensure an accurate Census.”
Abrams ended the discussion by highlighting the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion in politics and how they are essential mechanisms for democracy. She said DEI is not a recent invention but a culmination of attempts by social movements to achieve justice.
“DEI is not something that was cooked up in a laboratory,” Abrams said. “DEI describes 248 years of struggle to make America what it said it wanted to be.”
In an interview with The Michigan Daily after the event, LSA freshman Josephine Benguche said she appreciated that Abrams highlighted the misconception that politics is solely about taking the moral high ground. Instead, Abrams said politics is a means to enact policy and serve democracy.
“I think a lot of people think that politics is trying to argue or be the bigger person,” Benguche said. “I like how she mentioned that power sometimes is polluted with politics and how politics is a tool for policy which is democracy.”
Daily Staff Reporter Andrew Baum can be reached at asbaum@umich.edu.