-Our next guest is a voting-rights champion,
best-selling author, former state representative,
and current candidate for governor of Georgia.
Her children's book "Stacey's Extraordinary Words"
is on sale now.
Please welcome back to the show Stacey Abrams.
How are you, Stacey?
-I am quite well. How are you?
-I'm doing fantastic.
I feel as though you had a better week than I did.
For one, I'm at home with COVID,
but also, I am not a Georgia Bulldogs fan.
And you were tweeting about the game.
You were watching it with your father.
Who was more excited, you or him?
-My dad.
There is no way to beat a high school football star
when it comes to excitement about a college football game.
I don't even bother trying.
-Was it a fun father-daughter evening to watch it together?
-It was delightful.
So, he got his start by becoming famous on Instagram.
He did not really understand what that meant
until my 15-year-old niece pointed out that 100,000 people
had liked his post and that someone called him adorable,
which just made the halftime for him.
-[ Laughs ] -And then we won.
So, and my father grew up in Mississippi,
so he grew up with a deep animosity towards Bama.
So, you know, it was a full-circle game for him.
-That's fantastic. Congratulations to both of you.
So, I want to start by talking about the fact
that speeches this week from President Biden
and Vice President Harris in Atlanta
about the importance of passing voting-rights legislation --
you were absent.
You said it was due to scheduling.
But there were other voting-rights groups
who boycotted the event due to the slow progress
on voting rights.
How do you feel about people sort of using your absence
as maybe a reflection on the lack of Biden's popularity
in Georgia right now?
-I think we are missing the point, which is that we have
a president who understands the attack on our democracy
that we talked about last week when we remembered January 6th.
But more importantly, he's looking to a future
where we should all be able to participate in our elections.
And even the groups that were dispirited
have become re-engaged and re-energized,
and that's because the president is doing his job.
He is a champion for voting rights, and I'm proud to be
united with him in that fight.
-You talked a great deal about voter suppression.
Now you're running in a year where I wouldn't say
most pundits are bullish about the chances for Democrats.
How do you feel Georgia is tied to the sort of national polling,
right now, that is maybe not looking particularly good
for your party?
-Polling reflects what people are feeling.
But running for office is about telling people what's possible.
And I'm running on possibility.
I know it is possible for us to get healthcare for Georgians.
I know it's possible for us to fully fund education.
I know it's possible for us to acknowledge
the pain people are feeling economically,
but build a stronger economic future.
And that's what I'm going to focus on.
And I think that's what we all have to talk about.
We cannot ignore the real pain that people feel today.
But part of the responsibility of leadership
is to set a vision for what's to come.
And that's what I'm going to run on.
-This looked, for a long time, like it would be a rematch
between you and Governor Brian Kemp.
And yet there is a Donald Trump candidate, David Perdue,
who is primarying Kemp.
Is that something you focus on at all?
Do you enjoy the fact that there are two candidates
who are going to eventually face off,
one of them is going to face off with you,
sort of slinging mud at one another right now?
-There is a proverb that I have completely appropriated
and twisted a little bit, and it says,
"When elephants fight, stay off the grass."
I'm focusing on Georgia.
I will let them do what they want.
My job is to fight for the future of Georgians.
-A lot of focus has been on Senator Joe Manchin
from West Virginia and the power he sort of holds
over the Democratic Caucus right now.
Do you feel like that has sort of fogged over the fact
that Georgia won these two runoff elections,
and Democrats could be in a far worse place right now
than just having Joe Manchin as a tipping point?
-I think we have to remember that America would be
in a far worse place but for Senators Ossoff and Warnock;
that because of them, we have seen child poverty cut in half;
because of their two votes added to the litany,
we have seen the American Rescue Plan;
we've seen the infrastructure bill;
we are seeing progress being made on so many levels.
And a lot of Republican governors are getting to spend
money that Democrats have delivered into their states
to make certain that Americans,
regardless of who they voted for,
get the services they desire and the services they need.
And that's why I'm so proud that I got to be part of making sure
that Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock
are in the U.S. Senate.
-We have talked, every time you've been on the show,
about the fact -- about how impressed I am
that you still manage to be an author.
Not just a reader, not just a lover of television,
but an accomplished author, across many different genres --
political thrillers, suspense, romance.
And now you've written a children's book.
How is that different than the other experiences?
-Children are hard, man.
It is hard to write for kids. [ Chuckles ]
You've got to write a book that they will sit still for.
You've got to write a book that their parents won't despise you
for having to read over and over again if they like it.
And you have to take this complicated story in your head
and not make it simple, but distill it down so that it fits
into a much shorter space than a 100,000-word thriller.
And all in -- and make sure that the art is amazing,
which luckily I had nothing to do with,
because Kitt Thomas is a fantastic artist.
-I know you're very close with nieces and nephews.
Did you use them as a sounding board for this book?
And what was the sort of feedback they gave you?
-I did. And they were --
They are harsh critics, but I satisfied them all
and got to a place where
I could show myself at our holiday dinner
and they were pleased to show their new books
to their friends, so I passed the test.
-And now, when you're on the campaign trail,
when you're traveling around your state,
do you still find time to read?
And what sort of things do you like to read
when you have sort of maybe bigger, heavier topics
on your mind 24/7?
-I read everything. And yes, I read every day.
Right now, I am finishing up
"Harlem Shuffle" by Colson Whitehead.
I have a romance novel by Nora Roberts
that just makes me happy.
And that's going to be the reading I do this weekend.
And then I will find something very heavy and weighty to read
because, well, why not ruin, you know, my tomorrow?
-So, I think a lot of people,
maybe not just the voting-rights groups that boycotted
the speeches by the president and vice president this week,
are frustrated by the lack of progress
and don't feel particularly optimistic about
any sort of voting-rights bills getting through Congress.
You are somebody who's in this every day.
Is there a reason for anyone to feel optimistic right now?
-Absolutely.
I live in Georgia, the heart of the civil rights movement.
But, more importantly,
I'm the daughter of Robert and Carolyn Abrams,
who fought for civil rights, they fought for voting rights.
My parents lived through, you know,
the first 20 years of their lives, basically,
without full citizenship.
I think we can wait another few weeks and few months
to get to where we need to be,
because, ultimately, it's the goal.
And one thing I talk about in "Stacey's Extraordinary Words"
is perseverance, that we may not get what we want
in the moment we want it, but our responsibility is
to never give up hope
and to never give up the work we have to do.
The work is not done yet.
The work remains, and we can do it.
And that's what we saw from the president this week,
that's what we are going to continue to see
in the U.S. Senate,
and that's what I'm going to continue to do
because I believe in perseverance.
And I can spell it, too.
-Now, your book is about -- you mentioned spelling.
Your book is about a girl who enters a spelling bee.
This was something -- words and their correct spellings
was something that you had an early passion for, correct?
-I did, indeed.
-How would you go about -- Yeah, I'm sorry. Go ahead.
-Oh, no, I was going to confess my poor spelling of a word,
but go ahead.
We can live that ignominy later.
-Well, did you actually try to learn how to spell words
as a kid, and how would you go about it?
-I actually -- I didn't keep a notebook
of extraordinary words,
but I did love words.
And my mom was a research librarian when I was growing up,
so when she said, "Go look it up,"
there really was no excuse.
And after a while, I would look up a word
and then read the words above it and below it.
Eventually, I read the dictionary,
which, again, would not recommend as bedtime reading,
but was fun for me.
And I kept a list of words that I liked.
And so spelling words became a fun thing.
-So, does that mean that when you get a manuscript
to your editors, be it for a children's book
or for a suspense thriller,
is it hard for them to find a misspelled word, do you think?
-I do not misspell words, no.
-Okay, gotcha. What is your worst misspelling?
-So, my very first major misspelling was "chocolate."
-Okay. -I am Southern.
I had never heard it pronounced chock-o-late,
so I did not know there was an extra "O."
It was devastating to me to learn it onstage
that there was a second "O" in "chocolate."
So, that one sticks with me. -Wait, onstage?
Do you mean -- so you misspelled this in a bee?
-Oh. Oh, yeah.
My very first spelling bee, misspelled the word "chocolate."
Yeah, it was devastating on multiple levels.
And as you can tell, I've gotten over it.
-Yeah, no, it's great that it's not following you around
like a cloud all these years later.
-No. -[ Laughs ]
Hey, thank you so much for joining us.
Congrats on the book.
Congrats on Georgia football.
And we do hope to see you again soon.
-Thanks, Seth, so much. It's always a pleasure.
-Stacey Abrams, everybody.
"Stacey's Extraordinary Words" is on sale now.
We'll be right back with more "Late Night."