Georgia's Stacey Abrams revealed Monday that she is considering running for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination in 2020.
Abrams, who narrowly lost her campaign to become the next governor of the Peach State during the 2018 midterms, tweeted that while she had long considered 2028 to be the "earliest" she could see herself forging a White House bid, "2020 is definitely on the table" as she weighs her the next move in her political career.
"In #LeadFromTheOutside, I explore how to be intentional about plans, but flexible enough to adapt. 20 years ago, I never thought I'd be ready to run for POTUS before 2028. But life comes at you fast," Abrams wrote on Twitter Monday. "Now 2020 is definitely on the table..."
Abrams' comment came after an interview at the South by Southwest (SXSW) conference in Austin, Texas, where the Georgia Democrat reportedly said she previously thought 2028 would be the earliest she could run for president. "Now 2020 is definitely on the table," Abrams tweeted Monday after the interview.
Abrams' former campaign manager, Lauren Groh-Wargo, also tweeted after the interview to clarify that Abrams had not ruled out running for president next year. Abrams' remarks at SXSW "were in reference to her years-old spreadsheet, not her current considerations. She is taking a look at all options on the table in 2020 and beyond," Groh-Wargo tweeted.
Abrams became the first black woman in the country to win a major party nomination for governor during the 2018 midterm election cycle. She rose to national prominence last year during her gubernatorial campaign, which she lost by a mere 1.4 percentage points. Democrats have urged her to challenge Republican Sen. David Perdue next year, but she has also been considering throwing her hat in the ring for president in 2020 or running for governor again in 2022.
Abrams said she will make her decision by late March or early April, Politico reported. For now, Abrams said, her task is to "make certain that a Democrat is elected not only to the White House but that we have a Democratic majority in the Senate and a Democratic majority in Congress."
Abrams also revealed that she thinks President Donald Trump is a racist during her interview at SXSW.
"I think he's racist. I think he's xenophobic. I think he's homophobic. I think he has disdain for anything that he considers different than the norm," Abrams said, per Politico. She also called Trump a "bully" but noted that she does not think Democrats could unseat him in 2020 by employing tactics from his political handbook.
"I think beating Donald Trump is the wrong mission," Abrams said. "When you're focused on your enemy, then you are ignoring your allies."
While delivering the Democratic response to the State of the Union last month, Abrams invoked the segregated Jim Crow South and the milestones of the civil rights movement, urging America to both acknowledge and continue to right the ongoing scars and stains of racism and inequality that cast a shadow over the country. In doing so, Abrams positioned herself as a clear foil to Trump, who infamously argued "there's blame on both sides" as president in the wake of the violence spawned by neo-Nazis and white supremacists in Charlottesville.
"In this time of division and crisis, we must come together and stand for and with one another," she said. "America has stumbled time and again on its quest towards justice and equality. But with each generation, we have revisited our fundamental truths, and where we falter, we make amends."
"We fought Jim Crow with the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act, yet we continue to confront racism from our past and in our present — which is why we must hold everyone from the very highest offices to our own families accountable for racist words and deeds — and call racism what it is," she continued. "Wrong."
If Abrams decides to run, she would likely face competition for the Democratic nomination from what is expected to be a very crowded Democratic field that already includes 14 announced campaigns — and the list is far from complete.
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