Failed Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams still won’t concede the election, which has been over for four months. She also appears to be plotting some kind of revenge for her loss.
Abrams was giving a lecture at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN, on Tuesday when she yet again refused to concede. A reporter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution was at the event and seems to be the only outlet reporting Abrams’ quote about revenge.
“I don’t concede that I lost. I acknowledge that I’m not the governor of Georgia,” Abrams reportedly said. “That’s made plain every day I don’t walk into the Governor’s Mansion.”
She then discussed what happened between the time she lost the election and 10 days later — when she gave a speech where she refused to concede. She reportedly told the crowd, yet again, that Gov. Brian Kemp abused his power (he was the Georgia secretary of state while running for governor) to suppress votes — a claim that has been repeatedly debunked. In reality, voter participation has doubled since Georgia’s 2014 gubernatorial election.
“I upend the tradition of politics where you’re supposed to be genteel, say everything is fine. I didn’t do that,” Abrams told her audience.
“I could fight just to fight, but the minute it becomes about me, it becomes a vanity project. … That can’t be the reason you do things. And I spent that 10-day period plotting. Revenge can be very cathartic,” she added.
Abrams wouldn’t say at the event what her next plans were — whether she planned to run for president or the U.S. senate — but she did reveal two things she required for meeting with any potential Democrat presidential candidate:
One, you have to tell me what you’re going to do about voter suppression. And two, you have to believe Georgia is a swing state.
Abrams filed a federal lawsuit claiming Georgia election officials “grossly mismanaged” the gubernatorial election, suppressing the votes of low-income voters and people of color. The suit is still in the courts, according to the Associated Press.
Abrams also suggested people vote against anyone who tries to suppress voters (which, according to her and other Democrats, means requiring a person to prove who they are before voting).
“I’m still sad, still angry, but I’m less bitter than I was. That has to be channeled into action, and that’s what I’m trying to do,” she told the audience.
Her lecture was part of an annual series. Last week, former President George W. Bush spoke, according to the Tennessean, but the event was close to the press.
Abrams is one of two 2018 Democrats who lost their elections but refuse to concede. Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, who lost his bid for Florida governor, recently told “Real Time” host Bill Maher that some votes were not counted, and if they were, the outcome might have changed.
“Had we been able to legally count every one of those votes not just in Florida but in Georgia, I wonder what the outcome may be,” Gillum said.