Failed Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams said on Thursday evening that she believes the crowded field of Democrats running for president gives her an “opportunity” to potentially enter the presidential race in September.
At least 20 Democrats are expected to be in the race before the first presidential primary debates in June, and Abrams told Politico after receiving an Emily’s List award that “there are certainly advantages to running early, but there also are advantages to understanding the lay of the land.
“Because of the crowded field, that has actually created a bit of an opportunity to do more investigation,” Abrams reportedly said. “My responsibility is to analyze it, decide if that’s the job for me and how I can win… I believe based on my understanding of the contours of how to run a presidential race, September is actually an appropriate date.”
Abrams also said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has been diligently recruiting her to run for Senate, but she is still undecided about potentially challenging Sen. David Perdue (R-GA) in 2020.
After various establishment media outlets floated rumors about former Vice President Joe Biden announcing Abrams as his running mate on a “pre-cooked” ticket, many of Abrams’ supporters became outraged that Biden seemed intent on using her as a “human shield” to protect him from left-wing activists and black voters who have criticized his troubling record on social justice issues.
An Abrams adviser, as Breitbart News noted, even told BuzzFeed last week that the vice presidential rumors were “particularly exploitative” because “Biden couldn’t be bothered to endorse Stacey in the gubernatorial primary.”
“Now he wants her to save his ass. That’s some serious entitlement,” the adviser reportedly added.
Abrams has insisted that if she enters the 2020 race, it will be to get the presidential nomination. She also told Politico that “if she does not run for president, she does not plan to endorse another candidate in the contest.”
“I do not believe you run for second place, and I do not intend to enter a presidential race as a primary candidate for vice president,” Abrams said again on Thursday. “If I enter the race for president, I will enter the race for president.”
On Wednesday, activists at Al Sharpton’s National Action Network (NAN) conference chanted “run, Stacey, run!” after Abrams, who has been bitterly and defiantly insisting that her gubernatorial race was stolen from her, spoke about how her late grandmother did not live to see her take an oath of office.
The “run, Stacey, run!” chants started after Abrams said: “I don’t know which oath is coming up next.”
Abrams previously told the New York Times that she is considering running for president, especially after the left-wing media elevated white candidates like former Rep. Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke (D-TX) who also lost in 2018, because she wants black women to know that their achievements “should not be diminished.”
She later acknowledged to MSNBC that the media did not elevate her or failed Florida gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum like they hyped O’Rourke, and she said she believed race played a part in the different treatment she and Gillum got from the nearly all-white left-wing media.
“I need women of color, particularly Black women, to understand that our achievements should not be diminished,” Abrams recently told the Times. “I’m not saying I would be the best candidate, but I’m not going to dismiss it out of hand the way others do.”
Last week on CBS This Morning, when asked if she thought a woman or minority candidate would win her party’s 2020 nomination, Abrams replied: “I believe so.”