For Black women, Stacey Abrams’s loss ‘feels like a punch in the gut’

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For Black women, Stacey Abrams’s loss ‘feels like a punch in the gut’


The morning after the midterm elections, Nimay Ndolo woke up thinking about Stacey Abrams.



“I just hope that she’s okay,” said Ndolo, an online-content creator in Smyrna, Ga. “I hope she’s sitting in bed with some Starbucks. I hope her feet are up. I hope she’s talking to her mom, talking to her family.”

Most of all, Ndolo said, she hopes Abrams knows that Black women are proud of her: “I hope she doesn’t feel like she failed us.”

Abrams lost her rematch bid in Georgia’s gubernatorial race Tuesday night to Republican incumbent Gov. Brian Kemp. Some Black women and activists called it a devastating blow for Abrams, 48, a Democrat who has dedicated her career to mobilizing voters in Georgia — an effort credited with helping flip the state blue in the 2020 presidential election.

The outcome also, some said, reaffirmed a message about the racial and gender gaps that persist for Black women.

“We always have to work 10 times as hard as our White counterparts,” said Kristyn Hardy, an attorney in Atlanta. “And not only do we have one strike against us that we’re Black … we’re also a part of a second marginalized group because we’re women. And so it always seems like we’re getting the short end of the stick.”

For Ndolo, “it feels like a punch in the gut,” she said. “I was kind of hoping for a win for her, a win for all Black girls.”

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