August 15, 2019

Stacey Abrams has decided not to run for president (darn) -- but she's opening to being on the ticket. (Yay!) Any smart Democrat would love to have this warm, brilliant dynamo on the ticket.

"Stacey Abrams has announced she will not run for president. However, she's keeping her options open when it comes to vice president," Alysin Camerota said.

"She's joined an initiative focused on fighting voter suppression. I'll get to your initiative Fair Fight in a second, but just one last thing on deciding not to run for president. Just take us inside your mind-set. Do you wake up one day and saying 'I don't feel like it,' or what was your sort of process like of coming to that decision?"

Abrams said she appreciated all the people who were encouraging her to run, "But my responsibility is to run for office when I think I'm the person who can do the best jobs but also when it's the right time. And what I really wanted to assess is, what was the best value I could add to this primary season?

"We have an extraordinary crop of candidates but what we're missing is a plan for the general election. And we cannot wait until the general happens to take action. And when I thought about the work I've been doing since November 2018, I know I'm an expert on fighting back against voter suppression, lessons learned from 2018 but also new information we've gathered.

"My best value, my best contribution is using this primary to make sure we can win the general election and take back the White House and take back the Senate."

Camerota asked, "Do you think this election will be marred by voter suppression?" (Is the pope Catholic?)

"Every election we've had in the last 20 years has faced some vestige of suppression. The Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act and we know states that used to be covered under the Voting Rights Act have increased their purging and we've seen stricter and stricter laws that make it harder and harder to vote.

"What we can do in 2019 is prepare states to fight back and by the time we get to 2020 and have a nominee for the Democratic party, we will have in place voter protection teams in all 20 of the battleground states. That's for the presidency, for the Senate and for down ballot races and for state legislative initiatives that will change who draws the maps in 2021."

You can donate to Fair Fight here. From everything I know about Stacey Abrams, it will be money well spent.

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