Failed Democratic Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams has decided against making a bid for the presidency in 2020.
Abrams will focus instead on battling voter suppression including working with background states, the New York Times reports. Her decision to focus on voter suppression follows the long-standing argument that her opponent in the gubernatorial race, Brian Kemp, won because he stifled the black vote in Georgia.
“In typical Stacey Abrams fashion, she’s taken a hard look on the best use of her time and talents are,” Lauren Groh-Wargo, a close aide to Abrams and her former campaign manager in 2018, told the Times. “And while being a pundit or running for president might have been easier, fighting voter suppression and making sure our nominees have what they need to fight on the ground is what’s most important.”
While speaking at the African American Leadership Council Summit in June, Abrams said, “We won. I realize I’m not the governor of Georgia,” but later conceded, “I’m not taking the oath of office. I’m not moving into the mansion.”
She added, “They’re saying that because I didn’t get all the numbers I needed, that somehow we failed in our mission. We didn’t fail. In the state of Georgia, we transformed our electorate.”
Abrams launched two nonprofit groups recently: Fair Count, which is devoted to making sure minority communities are counted fairly in Georgia during the census, and Fair Fight Action, which is dedicated to securing voting rights for everyone.
Abrams gave the Democratic response to President Trump’s State of the Union address earlier this year.
