Failed Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams is, at this point, a political gimmick — a niche curiosity whose purpose is to convince herself and others that she is the true governor of Georgia in exile.
She travels the country insisting she actually won the 2018 race, which she lost to Georgia’s then-Secretary of State Brian Kemp by 48.8% to his 50.2%, by a margin of about 55,000 votes. Abrams claims, without evidence, that Kemp used voter suppression tactics to steal the election. In making such claims, she relies on a great deal of poor and biased national news reporting that hit in the weeks leading up to the election.
Recently, Abrams bragged that her 2018 campaign turned out a record-setting number of voters. Huge numbers of voters, she claims, despite her allegation that suppression tactics depressed vote totals and robbed her of her rightful governorship. Good luck figuring that one out.
“I ran a race where … we tripled Latino turnout, Asian-Pacific Islander turnout, increased youth participation rates by 138%, increased black turnout by 40%, and I got the highest share of white voters in a generation,” the maybe 2020 candidate said on MSNBC. “It is not a zero-sum game, and we have to remember that winning elections is about building the largest coalition possible.”
Confusingly enough, her bragging about the massive numbers her campaign turned out came almost immediately after she said this:
The turnout in last year’s race in Georgia was indeed impressive. More than 3.9 million votes were cast in the midterm, roughly the same number as had been cast in the 2012 presidential election and not far short of the 4.1 million votes cast in the 2016 presidential election. Turnout in 2018 vastly outstripped the 2.5 million votes cast in Georgia during the 2014 midterm.
So whoever oversaw the suppression of votes in Georgia last year did an especially lousy job.
.@staceyabrams: I ran a race where we tripled Latino, Asian-Pacific Islander turnout, increased youth participation by 139%, increased black turnout by 40%… the highest share of white voters in a generation… Winning… is about building the largest coalition possible. #AMJoy pic.twitter.com/yghanusziX
— AM Joy w/Joy Reid (@amjoyshow) April 7, 2019
The one thing Abrams is saying that is true is that she built one of the largest coalitions of voters ever to support a gubernatorial candidate in Georgia.
The second largest one ever, after her opponent, Republican Gov. Brian Kemp.
