Stacey Abrams, the failed Georgia gubernatorial candidate who has since become a voting rights activist, has just been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Abrams’ nomination was revealed on Monday by Lars Haltbrekken, a Socialist Party member of Norway’s parliament, according to Reuters.
“Abrams’ work follows in Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s footsteps in the fight for equality before the law and for civil rights,” Haltbrekken said.
King won the coveted award back in 1964, four years before his assassination.
“Abrams’ efforts to complete King’s work are crucial if the United States of America shall succeed in its effort to create fraternity between all its peoples and a peaceful and just society,” Haltbrekken added.
Thousands of people from all over the world are nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize each year, and the winner is generally announced in October. Other candidates this year include the Black Lives Matter movement, the World Health Organization and climate campaigner Greta Thunberg.
Former White House senior advisor Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of former President Donald Trump, was nominated as well on Sunday for his role in “negotiating four normalization deals between Israel and Arab nations known as the ‘Abraham Accords.””
“The Nobel Peace Prize is not for popularity,” Alan Dershowitz, who nominated Kushner, wrote in a letter to the Nobel Peace Prize committee. “Nor is it an assessment of what the international community may think of those who helped bring about peace. It is an award for fulfilling the daunting criteria set out by Alfred Nobel in his will.”
The Nobel website explains how nominations of this kind are handled:
“These nominations will be submitted by members of national assemblies, governments, and international courts of law; university chancellors, professors of social science, history, philosophy, law and theology; leaders of peace research institutes and institutes of foreign affairs; previous Nobel Peace Prize Laureates; board members of organizations that have received the Nobel Peace Prize; present and past members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee; and former advisers of the Norwegian Nobel Institute.”
It remains to be seen who will win the Nobel Peace Prize this year.
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