A Democratic voter wanted to know why Stacey Abrams is publicly auditioning to become Joe Biden’s running mate instead of running for one of Georgia’s two open Senate seats.
Abrams, the state’s unsuccessful 2018 Democratic gubernatorial nominee, has been open about hoping to be considered by Biden as a possible vice president pick. But the same candor has earned her both praise and criticism when Democrats need to flip the balance of power in the Senate if they have any chance at enacting a liberal agenda after November’s elections.
“I didn’t run for the Senate because I don’t believe that every job is interchangeable. And I’m not in politics simply to run and stand for office,” Abrams, 46, told a voter Thursday during an MSNBC town hall with Biden.
Abrams, the founder of voting rights nonprofit organization Fair Fight, went on to acknowledge the importance of lower-tier races to avoid census-related gerrymandering.
“I’m here to do the work,” she said. “And the work that I thought was most important was making sure that we had free and fair elections across this country. I did that through Fair Fight.”
The former minority leader of the Georgia House of Representatives added, “My interest is in making certain that Vice President Joe Biden becomes President Biden, because we need someone who believes not only in thinking the right thoughts but doing the work.”
Biden, the two-term vice president, 36-year Delaware senator, and now the presumptive 2020 Democratic presidential nominee, also jumped in to say Abrams was “capable of doing any or both.”
Biden invited Abrams to take part in the program, a move many political pundits interpreted as a way his campaign could test the pair’s chemistry as it continues with its selection process. Potential No. 2s often join nominees on the campaign trail, but that’s no longer a possibility due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Biden has said his team is vetting about a dozen women who could be named on the ticket.
“It’s a deep, deep background check. It takes somewhere between five weeks and eight weeks to get it done,” he said during a virtual fundraiser this week of narrowing down his shortlist.
