AJR37: Joint Resolution Text

LRB-2329/1

LTK:kjf

2021 - 2022 LEGISLATURE

2021 Assembly JOINT RESOLUTION 37

April 16, 2021 - Introduced by Representatives L. Myers, Moore Omokunde, Emerson, Hong, Snodgrass, Hebl, Sinicki, Brostoff, Andraca, Neubauer, Cabrera, Vruwink, Pope, Shankland, Spreitzer, Shelton, Subeck, Ohnstad, Anderson, Bowen, Vining, Hesselbein, Baldeh, Goyke, Hintz, Drake, S. Rodriguez and Ortiz-Velez, cosponsored by Senators L. Taylor, Wirch, Carpenter, Roys and Johnson. Referred to Committee on Rules.

AJR37,1,2 Relating to: honoring politician, attorney, and author Stacey Abrams for her public service.

AJR37,1,4 Whereas, Stacey Abrams was born in Madison, Wisconsin, and lived in Mississippi before moving to Atlanta with her family; and

AJR37,1,6 Whereas, Abrams began her public service career serving as deputy city attorney of the City of Atlanta; and

AJR37,1,8 Whereas, Abrams went on to serve as a distinguished member of the Georgia House of Representatives from 2007 to 2017; and

AJR37,1,11 Whereas, when Abrams became minority leader of the Georgia House of Representatives in 2011, she was the first Black representative to serve as a House leader and the first woman to lead either party in the Georgia General Assembly; and

AJR37,1,13 Whereas, Abrams, while serving in the state legislature, founded the New Georgia Project, a nonprofit dedicated to registering new voters; and

AJR37,1,15 Whereas, Abrams ran for governor of Georgia in 2018, becoming the first Black woman in the United States to earn a major party's gubernatorial nomination; and

AJR37,2,4 Whereas, Abrams, despite losing her bid for governor by fewer than 55,000 votes, still managed—through the vigorous canvassing and voter engagement efforts she led during her campaign—to win more votes than any Democrat in the state's history; and

AJR37,2,7 Whereas, in late 2018, Abrams founded Fair Fight Action, a national voting rights organization that has reportedly inspired some 800,000 new voters to register in Georgia; and

AJR37,2,10 Whereas, Abrams, who says it is her mission to “deliver a vision for prosperity and equality, where everyone in our nation has a voice and where each of those voices is heard,” redoubled her efforts in 2020 to get out the vote; and

AJR37,2,14 Whereas, Abrams is now widely credited not only with helping Joseph Biden win Georgia in the 2020 presidential election, but also with helping Georgia Senators Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff win their respective runoff races in January 2021; and

AJR37,2,17 Whereas, Abrams has also garnered praise for the eight romance novels she has written under the name Selena Montgomery and won numerous public service awards, including the John F. Kennedy New Frontier Award; and

AJR37,2,21 Whereas, Abrams was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize on February 1, 2021, the first day of Black History Month, by a member of Norway's parliament who said that her work “follows in Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s footsteps in the fight for equality before the law and for civil rights”; now, therefore, be it

AJR37,2,23 Resolved by the assembly, the senate concurring, That the members of the Wisconsin Legislature join in honoring Stacey Abrams for her public service.

AJR37,2,24 (End)