Abrams to blast shutdown 'stunt,' call for shared prosperity

ATLANTA (AP) — Stacey Abrams steps into the brightest spotlight of her political career tonight with a speech that will chide President Donald Trump and Republicans for political gamesmanship that hurts working Americans.

Abrams narrowly lost her bid in Georgia last year to become America's first black female governor. Instead, she'll become the first black woman to deliver a State of the Union response.

According to excerpts of her speech, Abrams will argue all Americans should have economic opportunity and voting access. She will also call the recent partial government shutdown a "stunt engineered by the president of the United States."

The 35-day shutdown, Abrams will say, "defied every tenet of fairness and abandoned not just our people, but our values."

Responding to the president's most high-profile speech is one of the toughest jobs in politics – a role that has tripped up members of both parties in the past.

She must introduce herself to a national audience who may not be familiar with her groundbreaking political resume as the daughter of Mississippi-born parents who went on to Yale Law School and became the first black woman to lead her party in the legislature before she sought Georgia's top office.

More fundamentally, Abrams must represent her entire party with an appeal aimed at both a base desperate to reclaim the White House and a wider swath of less-partisan Americans who are uneasy with the Trump administration.

It all comes as she weighs national party overtures to run for the Senate in 2020.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who asked Abrams to deliver the Democrats' response, said earlier today she "is going to do a great job" and billed Trump as the warm-up act for her.

Trump derided Abrams as "unqualified" for statewide office during her gubernatorial campaign.

Those close to Abrams say her response calls for a more unified society with shared prosperity. She will focus on education, health care and civil rights – including voting rights – with a focus on the middle class.