Stacey Abrams says no Democrats have contacted her about possible vice-presidential run
Democrat Stacey Abrams, who isn't running for president in 2020, said that none of her fellow Democrats seeking the party's nomination to face off against President Trump have contacted her about making a possible vice-presidential run, but she said she would be "honored" to be considered.
"I would be honored to be considered for the vice presidency by the nominee, but it is presumptuous to think that they are looking at me. What I want everyone to look at is voter suppression," Abrams said on "CBS This Morning" Monday.
The rising star in the Democratic Party who shot down pleas to make a bid for Senate had hinted at joining the 2020 field several times, saying that a presidential campaign was "definitely on the table." She later told "CBS This Morning" that her successes in "transforming the electorate" in her home state showed she'd be "just as capable of becoming the president of the United States as anyone running."
But she hasn't ruled out the 2020 ticket altogether, saying that she is open to being the eventual Democratic presidential nominee's running mate. Abrams recently told The New York Times that she believed the "strongest contribution" that she could give to the presidential primary would be to "make sure our nominee is coming into an environment where there's strong voter protections in place."
"I have talked to them about making certain that we fight voter suppression and that Georgia's a battleground state," Abrams told CBS when asked if she's had discussions about a VP ticket.
Abrams had met with a slew of candidates, including current front-runner former Vice President Joe Biden earlier this year, sparking fresh rumors of a possible Biden-Abrams ticket to face off against Mr. Trump in the general election.
"We talked about a lot of things, but that was not the core issue," Abrams told CBS at the time.
For now, Abrams said she will focus on expanding the work of her voting rights initiative, Fair Fight 2020. The Democrat, who narrowly lost her race for Georgia governor last November, said she is working to make sure that every eligible ballot in 2020 is counted, slamming some states' recent voting laws as "insidious."
"Voter suppression is the base line that determines whether your voice is heard, whether the values and the policies that you want ever come to fruition," said Abrams. She said people need to realize voter suppression laws from the 1960s that forbade voting for African-Americans have evolved.
"What we're talking about is whether you can register and stay on the rolls, whether you can cast your ballot and whether your ballot is counted," she said.
Abrams, who refused to formally concede to Republican Brian Kemp in 2018 due to concerns over voting irregularities after she lost by less than 2% of the vote, said that conceding would acknowledge to voters that the "process was fair."
"I am complicit if I say that system is fair. I did not deny the legal sufficiency of the election, I am not claiming to be the governor of Georgia despite what Breitbart and others like to say. What I have said is we won the battle of making sure more voices were heard because we had the highest record turnout in Georgia history for Democrats," Abrams said.
She added, "But because there are more people in the water, that doesn't mean there's fewer sharks. You can have higher turnout. That doesn't diminish the fact that voter suppression is real and affecting people across the country."