Stacey Abrams is the first African-American woman to deliver a State of the Union response in the 53-year history of this tradition. Pool response image via AP.

By Sharon Austin, Professor of Political Scieence and Director of the African American Studies Program, University of Florida. First published on The Conversation

In a brief, direct and optimistic speech about fighting immigrant scapegoating, racism and voter suppression, Stacey Abrams celebrated diversity in her Democratic rebuttal to Donald Trump’s divisive 2019 State of the Union address.

“We will create a stronger America together,” she said.

Abrams is the first African-American woman to deliver a State of the Union response in the 53-year history of this tradition. She is the first black woman to be nominated by a major party to run for governor. Before that, she was the first African-American ever to serve as House minority leader in the Georgia General Assembly.

Her State of the Union response has increased speculation that she is a rising political starwith a bright future in the Democratic Party.

By choosing Abrams to give the State of the Union response, Democrats were clearly reaching out to African-Americans and women, a key base for the party.

But Abrams’ speech also spoke to an often-overlooked constituency the Democratic Party may not have even thought about when they picked her. It’s a constituency Abrams has already cultivated: rural Southerners of color.

Abrams campaigned in both urban and rural counties last year, defying the logic of a Democratic Party that tends to court big city voters while leaving rural Americans to be won over by Republicans like Donald Trump.

Stacey Abrams vows to keep fighting for voting rights in a speech, November 16, 2018. (Alyssa Pointer / Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)

Forgotten Southerners

I have been studying minority politics in the South for over 20 years.

The rural South is home to about 90 percent of America’s entire black rural population, and politics in this region have long been defined by black and white polarization. The South was a Democratic stronghold until the civil rights movement, and Democrats know they can’t win national office without winning here.

But the South – both urban and rural – is changing. In recent decades, a large number of Asian and Hispanic immigrants have settled in Louisiana, North Carolina, South Carolinaand other southern states, bringing greater demographic and political diversity to this formerly black-and-white region.

Chinese immigrants first came to rural southern areas like the Mississippi Delta after the Civil War, so Asian-Americans have deep roots in the South. But between 2000 and 2010, the population of Asian-Americans in the South grew 69 percent, to over 3.8 million, largely due to the region’s many job opportunities and affordable housing.

The South’s Hispanic population has grown by 70 percent in recent years, surpassing 2.3 million people in 2010, when the last U.S. Census was taken. Many of these individuals have settled in rural communities, filling agricultural and other jobs and sending their children to public school.

Racial and ethnic minorities now make up over 20 percent of the entire rural population in 10 southern states, from Florida to Virginia.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has not come quietly to Washington, even though she is the right-wing’s chief bogeyperson, as they track her every move. Writing for GQ, Jay Willis says in Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Twitter Presence Is a Blueprint for 2020 Democrats::

Now that she is a real-life congresswoman-elect and no longer the hypothetical embodiment of their worst nightmare, right-wing media's fixation on Ocasio-Cortez has metastasized from standard-issue fearmongering to a transparent, desperate obsession. Over the past few weeks, earnest dunk attempts from aspiring Twitter celebrities have centered on her correct opinion that Election Day should be a national holiday; her accidental use of the word "chambers" instead of "branches"; her reluctance to pay rent in two of the most expensive cities in America at the same time; and, of course, her possession of multiple pieces of cold-weather clothing, which was meant to suggest that she must secretly be rich, because as everyone knows, Merriam-Webster defines "working-class" as "owning only one coat."

Politico writes Monday that Ocasio-Cortez is leading a group of progressives very unsettled by the prospect of West Virginia Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin assuming a minority leadership position on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

At a Friday rally outside the Capitol, Ocasio-Cortez joined other Democratic lawmakers and other incoming Democratic freshmen, arguing that allowing Manchin to become the ranking member of the Energy committee would undercut the momentum behind their "Green New Deal" proposal that calls for transitioning to 100 percent renewable energy sources within a decade of initiating the plan.

“The vast majority of Americans believe that we should not be taking money from the industries that we are legislating and really presiding over in our committee work, but in D.C. that’s a controversial opinion,” Ocasio-Cortez said alongside youth climate activists from the Sunrise Movement.

Manchin, who has a 47 percent lifetime score from the League of Conservation Voters Joe Manchin has a steady — and expected position given that he’s elected to support voters in his coal country state — regularly accepts election campaign contributions from the fossil fuel industry.

Supporters of the Green New Deal say the activism that propelled candidates like Ocasio-Cortez to Washington underscores the citizen support for action on climate change. The argument gained momentum with federal scientists from 13 agencies last week issuing a report forecasting dire economic and physical consequences across America if greenhouse gas emissions continue rising.

“A decade ago it was a little easier to hide behind, ‘I’ve got a state where we can’t do this,’” Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) told POLITICO after the event, noting her Maine delegation colleagues Sens. Angus King (I) and Susan Collins (R) often side with Democrats on climate issues. “It may be hard for Joe Manchin to be there, but I think there’s going to be a lot of other colleagues who say, ‘Hey, this needs to be on our agenda, we’ve got to move forward with some legislation.’ And they could be on both sides of the aisle.”