Voters will have another chance to cast their ballots for defeated Democratic Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams.
“Yes, I'm going to run again,” Abrams said at a Fortune event Tuesday, The Hill reports.
Whether the rising Democratic star plans to run for governor again, for the Senate or even for the White House is unclear. She told the crowd she's still assessing her next move: "What it is I'm going to run for I haven't decided yet. Stay tuned."
Like many politicians thrust into the national spotlight during the 2018 midterm elections, Abrams has been discussed as a possible Democratic presidential candidate for 2020. Newsweek reports she played down speculation she's preparing for a Pennsylvania Avenue run early in December.
Initially, she told reporters she wasn't thinking about running for president. However, she later amended that statement by saying, "I am open to all options, and it’s too soon after the election to know exactly what I’m going to do.”
At the Fortune event, Abrams stressed she views public office as an opportunity to serve, rather than a means to power. She told the audience she has no ambitions other than to help her fellow Americans, according to HuffPost.
“Being in office is an effective way to get better done,” she said. “I want to make sure what I run for next is the right job not just because it has a good title, but because the mission matches my skills and matches the moment."
In discussing the 2018 election, the former minority leader explained why she chose not to concede the race to her Republican rival, Governor-elect Brian Kemp.
"Words matter. For me, concession, there’s a legal and moral nature to conceding,” Abrams said. “It means you accept that something is right, that it is just, that it is proper. What happened was not just.”
As Blavity reported, the race between Abrams and Kemp was incredibly close and full of controversy. Kemp oversaw the election as secretary of state; Democrats accused Kemp and his fellow Republicans of voter suppression. While Kemp denied this was the case, many voters spoke out on Election Day about their troubles submitting ballots. Kemp's office also oversaw tens of thousands of voters being removed from voter rolls.
"That anyone had their vote tarnished or restricted or narrowed is wrong,” Abrams said during her speech. “This isn’t a partisan issue. This is a people issue. This is a democracy issue.”
To ensure her state doesn't have any voting controversies in future elections, Abrams and her team have filed a federal lawsuit hoping to force voting reforms in Georgia, as Blavity reported.
While the election didn't go as she'd hoped, the former candidate nevertheless used the Fortune forum to celebrate her camp's midterm achievements.
“We turned out voters who had never been engaged in the body politic,” she said. “We tripled the number of Latinos who voted. We tripled the number of Asian Americans. We increased African Americans by 38 percent, increased the youth vote.”
And she made it clear that even if she never wins another election, she plans to continue fighting for her vision of America.
"I care about policy, I am driven by a commitment to justice, to ending poverty, to addressing social needs, and using public policy as a tool to improve the lives of those around us," she said.
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