On its face, being nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize is a prettay, prettay big deal. Most people – myself included – have never been nominated.
So when the news broke Monday that Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of the former president, as well as 2018 Georgia Democratic gubernatorial nominee Stacey Abrams, had been nominated for this year’s prize, the bases of both parties went nuts.
How could either of these people be nominated for such an illustrious prize? They totally don’t deserve it!
Here’s the thing: Being nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize is a LOT different than actually winning it. Mostly because a whole lot of people can nominate you to be in the running.
Here’s who can put forward someone for the peace prize, according to the Nobel website:
“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.”
That’s a whole heck of a lot of people who are allowed to nominate anyone they like! Which is why ex-President Trump was one of 210 people (and 107 organizations) nominated for the Nobel Prize in 2020.
In Kushner’s case, he was nominated by pro-Trump lawyer Alan Dershowitz for the work he did on Middle East peace while a member of the Trump administration. (Dershowitz was eligible to nominate Kushner as a professor emeritus of Harvard Law School.)
Abrams was nominated by Lars Haltbrekken, a member of Norway’s Socialist party, for her work on voter registration and rights.
Other nominees include the “Black Lives Matter” movement, climate activist Greta Thunberg and Russian activist Alexey Navalny. And, if past is prologue, that list will grow waaaaaay longer before the actual prize is given out in October.
The Point: Save your outrage until Kushner or Abrams actually wins. Which is very unlikely.
