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Stacey Abrams Says She'll Run for Office Again

Abrams conceded the Georgia gubernatorial race last week, but she'll be ready to run again—right after she "takes a nap."
Stacey Abrams

Georgia hasn't seen the last of Stacey Abrams.

Abrams conceded the gubernatorial race to Republican Brian Kemp last week, but she says the loss hasn't hampered her political ambitions. In a Sunday interview on CNN's "State of the Union," Abrams told host Jake Tapper she has plans to run again.

"I’m going to spend the next year as a private citizen but I do indeed intend to run for office again," Abrams said. "I’m not sure for what and I am not exactly certain when. I need to take a nap, but once I do, I’m planning to get back into the ring."

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Abrams delivered an unconventional concession speech on Friday, acknowledging that Kemp had won—but only because he went to lengths to make sure "democracy failed" in Georgia's elections.

"So let's be clear—this is not a speech of concession, because concession means to acknowledge an action is right, true, or proper," Abrams said. "As a woman of conscience and faith, I cannot concede that. But, my assessment is the law currently allows no further viable remedy.

"Now, I can certainly bring a new case to keep this one contest alive, but I don't want to hold public office if I need to scheme my way into the post," she continued. "Because the title of governor isn't nearly as important as our shared title—voters. And that is why we fight on."

Abrams went on to announce she'd be launching a political action committee called "Far Fight Georgia," which would promote voting rights and election integrity in Georgia—a direct response to Kemp's efforts to purge more than 300,000 voters from the rolls ahead of the midterms and prevent tens of thousands more from registering.

By all measures, Abrams' future—and Democrats'—appears promising despite her defeat. Abrams fell to Kemp by about 55,000 votes, the closest any Democrat has come to winning the governor's mansion in Georgia since 1966. What's more, other midterm victories for progressive women who ran down-ballot in Georgia—like Lucy McBath, who flipped the 6th congressional district seat Democrats failed to clinch in 2017—suggest it could be a winnable battleground state for the party going into 2020.

And Abrams generated overwhelming enthusiasm around her candidacy, spurring former President Barack Obama and Oprah Winfrey to come to Georgia to stump for her.

Georgians know that Abrams' loss doesn't mean the progressive wave in Georgia has ebbed. On election night, as supporters watched Abrams fall behind Kemp in the polls, they were still able to recognize the enormity of what they'd achieved—even if they lost.

“I feel like we’re chipping away, it’s just a big rock," Angela Taylor, a Georgia resident, told Broadly at the time. "It’s a big boulder."