Notable & Quotable: Stacey Abrams ‘I Did Not Challenge’ the Election
‘When I acknowledged I would not become governor, that he had won the election, I did not challenge the outcome of the election.'
Dec. 3, 2021 6:11 pm ET
Former Democratic Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams speaks during a rally in Charlottesville, Va., Oct. 24.PHOTO: EZE AMOS/GETTY IMAGES
MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow interviewing Stacey Abrams, Dec. 2. Ms. Abrams, a Democrat, lost the Georgia governor’s race in 2018 and announced Wednesday she’ll run again in 2022:
Maddow: When you ran in 2018, part of the reason we covered the race so intently is because the candidates are both very interesting people, present company included. But also because there was a disturbing dynamic in that race, which was that your Republican opponent, who went on to win the race, was secretary of state at the time and was engaged in really aggressive, what appeared to be voter-suppression tactics, including throwing huge numbers of Georgians off the voting rolls in a way that seemed to benefit his own candidacy in which he was on the ballot.
When you so narrowly lost, you famously were contentious about the loss, saying that you didn’t necessarily think it had been a fair fight.
Stepping back now a few years out of that, and seeing what’s happened both in Georgia and around the country around the issues of fairness in elections, how do you feel about that now looking back at it, and how do you want people to understand how that dynamic affected the race the first time?
Abrams: In 2018, I had spent more than a year traveling the state, but I’d also spent 10 years, 11 years in the state Legislature. And I’d been working on voting rights since I was 17. And I’d watched. In fact, I’d battled with the then-secretary of state over his egregious and aggressive voter-suppression activities.
And on the night on the 16th of November, when I acknowledged I would not become governor, that he had won the election, I did not challenge the outcome of the election unlike some recent folks did. What I said was that the system was not fair.
And leaders challenge systems. Leaders say we can do better. And that’s what I declared.
Exc. Near full |
