Will Stacey Abrams Ever Run For President? Democrat Comments About Political Ambitions

Stacey Abrams has offered more insight into her presidential ambitions, confirming that she plans to run and obliquely attacking Republican efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. In an interview with CBS News, the long-time Georgia politician with an increasing national profile talked about both her past and future.

She recounted a time when she was invited to the Governor’s mansion as the valedictorian of her high school class.

“We get to the guard gate, and the guard stops us and tells us we don't belong there, that it's a private event. My dad says, 'No, this is my daughter, Stacey. We have an invitation.' But the guard doesn't ask for my invitation that my mom has. And I remember watching him watch the bus pull off," she said.

Her parents, however, pushed her forward.

“If my mother had not had my arm in a death grip, I would have been back on that bus. I think two things happened that day. One, they were not going to let me be denied this honor that I'd achieved. But two, I think they wanted me to see my responsibility is to not let someone else tell me who I am and where I belong,” she said.

Abrams also spoke to the sense of responsibility that’s come with her status as a national figure.

"Do I hold [the presidency] as an ambition? Absolutely," she said. "And even more importantly, when someone asks me if that's my ambition, I have a responsibility to say yes, for every young woman, every person of color, every young person of color, who sees me and decides what they're capable of based on what I think I am capable of.”

When Abrams was asked about Republican efforts to overturn the 2020 election, she looked back to her own gubernatorial efforts in 2016. She lost by less than 2% to Republican Brian Kemp, who was also serving as the secretary of state overseeing his own election, and had purged 1.5 million people from voter rolls.

“Words matter," Abrams said. "What I have fought for, and what I have said consistently, what even they will admit — those who are unhappy with me – is that I never once filed a challenge to make myself governor of Georgia. I have always ever fought to make certain that every vote got counted and every person got included."

Abrams said that her subsequent successful efforts to turn Georgia blue were a part of the progress that sparked the backlash of the Jan. 6 Capitol riots. During the chaos, violent Trump supporters bore confederate flags into the Capitol building.

"That flag has always been a declaration of domestic terrorism against communities they thought were not worthy of being able to call themselves citizens," she said. "And so, yes, there is absolutely a through-line from what we accomplished in Georgia to what happened on Jan. 6."

Abrams’ efforts in Georgia may have also won her some influential allies. In a recent visit to the state, President Joe Biden said that she “could be anything she wants to be, from whatever she chooses, to president.”