Stacey Abrams, a former Democratic candidate for Georgia governor, has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for her work in increasing voter participation. The Norwegian Nobel Committee is scheduled to announce this year’s prize winner in October. (Alyssa Pointer / [email protected])
By Tia Mitchell
Stacey Abrams, the former candidate for governor whose work on voting rights has been credited with Democrats’ recent success in Georgia, has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, according to multiple news reports.
Lars Haltbrekken, a member of Norway’s Parliament, said Monday that he nominated Abrams because her work helped boost voter turnout via nonviolent activism.
“Abrams’ work follows in Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s footsteps in the fight for equality before the law and for civil rights,” he said in a statement, according to Reuters.
King, a fellow Atlantan, won the Nobel prize in 1964. Another Georgian, former President Jimmy Carter, earned the honor in 2002.
A representative for Abrams declined to comment on the nomination.
Haltbrekken is among the thousands of people who are eligible to propose candidates for the prestigious honor. That list of nominators includes members of various bodies of government and former prize winners.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee is scheduled to announce a winner in October.
The long list of candidates includes Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, the World Health Organization, climate change activist Greta Thunberg, the Black Lives Matter movement, WikiLeaks and Jared Kushner, son-in-law of former President Donald Trump.
Officially, nominees are not disclosed until 50 years after the fact. But individual nominators are free to reveal names they submitted.
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