It didn’t take long for Stacey Abrams to become a household name. In the 2018 midterms, the former Democratic minority leader of the Georgia House of Representatives soared to national prominence with her bold, inclusive campaign to become that state’s first black female governor — and the first black female governor in United States history. Abrams ultimately lost the race to Republican Secretary of State Brian Kemp by a margin of just 1.4% in an election marred by reports of voter suppression by Kemp’s own office.

But her vision for rebuilding the Democratic Party has endured. Rather than jumping into the U.S. senate race, as party leaders have urged her to, Abrams launched a voting rights nonprofit, Fair Fight, aimed at rallying those she sees as key to the party’s future: minorities and low-frequency voters.

Teen Vogue caught up with Abrams to discuss efforts to suppress the youth vote, why everyone should respond to the 2020 census, and why voting rights are essential to the success of every progressive issue.

Teen Vogue: Why did you decide to pursue fighting voter suppression and advocating for the census in lieu of running for office?

Stacey Abrams: At the end of the 2018 campaign, as I was thinking about what I would do next, my responsibility was to think about why I’d run in the first place.

[There were two core issues] that undergirded everything we wanted to do. We wanted to make sure that people had the right to vote and therefore the right to seek change and progress. [And with the census coming up] to make certain that everyone was counted and was visible so they receive the resources they need.

When it comes to Fair Fight, I wanted to start an organization that would push for free and fair elections because I know how hard it is to convince people to stay engaged when they believe that their right to vote has been taken away. When you think about the issues that matter to young people — climate change, criminal justice reform, economic security, having the ability to make a living and live a better life than your parents — all of those things are tied directly to being able to elect people who share your values and who will pursue those issues. In recent years, we’ve had too many examples of politicians who operated in contravention of our values and not in the pursuit of them.

The second responsibility I have is to make sure every person, especially those who are hardest to count, are actually included in the census. The census says who is here, no matter what their status is, no matter their race, no matter their origin. The census is the only way we do this [as a country] and we only do it once every 10 years.

Any time people are left out of the census, it has a real effect. It affects political seats. It affects the money that would go to make certain that schools are not overcrowded. Communities don't get the same resources and don’t have access to hospitals or have good roads because they weren’t counted fully in the census.

Those are the two things I wanted to do. Running for office is about doing the work. It's not the title; it's not the election. It's about the work that needs to be done. And my belief is that you have to do the work, even if you don't get the job.

TV: Although Donald Trump did not succeed in getting the citizenship question on the census, many people might still be afraid to respond, worried that their information might still somehow get to ICE. What do you say to them?