What is the Role of this Romance Writer in US Elections?

What does Selena Montgomery, a thriller and romantic writer, have to do with Biden’s presidency? Being the author of 8 novels and selling over more than 100000 copies, she is more familiar among the readers. 

However, she has been hailed as the mastermind behind the democratic victory in Georgia after 28 years. Selene Montgomery, the nom de plume of Stacey Abrams, a democratic leader, has been credited for the democratic success in Georgia due to her concerted efforts to ensure voter rights. As Biden took the lead in Georgia, a leading romance bookshop, Ripped Bodice claimed that demand for Stacey’s novels has increased.

Stacey Abrams published her first novel, Rules of Engagement, during her education at Yale Law School. Since then, she has published eight novels and some non-fiction books. What makes this woman of colour special in the highly contested US political sphere is her relentless struggle for voting rights. She was a member of the Georgia House of Representatives and held the post of minority leader from 2011 to 2017. In 2018, she ran an unsuccessful bid for Governor of Georgia against Brian Kemp, the then-Secretary of State. She refused to concede, citing widespread irregularities in the election including voter suppression. More than 1 million voters were purged from the list, and nearly 6,70,000 were canceled from their electoral rolls. An Associated Press analysis showed that 70% of canceled voters were blacks – a significant vote base for Abrams. She never sat quiet and demoralized. She formed Fair Fight Action, a voter rights NGO and filed a lawsuit against the Secretary of State and the State election board. Apart from that, Fair Fight Action registered 8,00,000 new voters in Georgia. She also made efforts to educate and empower voters of colour and encouraged them to register. Fair Fight Action, along with other grassroots level organizations, worked towards increasing voter registrations and turnouts. This strategy has paid its results. Georgia witnessed a record-breaking voter turnout from primary to Presidential elections. Their efforts also yielded good results in Wisconsin and some other swing states favoring the democratic camp. For Abrams, this success is an act of sweet revenge and an impetus to carry forward her efforts in electoral reforms.

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