As 2020 Democrat candidates work to earn the votes of black voters, they insist Stacey Abrams is the true governor of Georgia, despite her loss in 2018.
The latest stage for the talking point was the African-American Leadership Council Summit hosted by the Democratic National Committee and attended by activist Al Sharpton.
“Voter suppression is the reason Stacey Abrams isn’t governor right now,” former Vice President Joe Biden said during his speech, prompting applause.
“I don’t need to tell Stacey Abrams about this, Stacey Abrams ought to be the governor of Georgia,” Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana, said later in the day, citing “patterns of voter suppression” for blocking her election.
Sen. Corey Booker (D-NJ) also posited that Abrams won the election.
“She should be the governor,” he said to reporters after his speech. “I think her call for us to pay attention to our democracy has inspired and motivated a lot of what I’m talking about in this campaign.”
Others like Beto O’Rourke admitted that Abrams “technically lost the race” but won by bringing attention to voter suppression issues.
“Though she may have technically and legally lost the election,” he said, “she won a much larger battle.”
In a widely applauded speech at the event, Abrams herself declared that because she lost, the right to vote did not exist in Georgia.
“What we found on that day in that election is that we don’t know the truth because there wasn’t a fair fight,” she said at the gala.
She specifically called out Breitbart News for reminding her that she actually lost the election.
“Now, I’m fairly certain that Breitbart and Daily Caller are now spinning up the memes that will tell everyone that I am delusional and a liar,” she told the crowd.
Since Abrams loss, 2020 candidates have used her case as an applause line whenever speaking to black voters.
“Massive voter suppression prevented Stacy Abrams from becoming the rightful governor of Georgia,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) said to voters in April at Sharpton’s National Action Network conference.
In May, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) also claimed that Abrams had the election stolen from her.
“Let’s say this loud and clear — without voter suppression, Stacey Abrams would be the governor of Georgia, Andrew Gillum is the governor of Florida,” Harris said during a speech at the NAACP Fight For Freedom Fund Dinner in Detroit.
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