May 1, 2019 The Skanner Portland & Seattle Page 9
News
Georgia Democrat Stacey Abrams Won’t Run for Senate in 2020
Decision dims party’s hopes of a majority in the Senate
ATLANTA — Georgia
Democrat Stacey Abrams
says she will not run for
a U.S. Senate seat in 2020,
dimming her party’s
hopes of a Senate major-
ity and renewing specu-
lation about her political
future after last year’s
unsuccessful run for
governor catapulted her
to national acclaim.
Abrams, 45, came with-
in 60,000 votes of being
the first Black woman
elected governor in U.S.
history. She told The As-
sociated Press she hasn’t
ruled out a presidential
bid, though she’s in no
rush to join a Democrat-
ic field that already in-
cludes 20 candidates .
“I’m going to continue
to watch how the nation-
al conversation around
the presidency unfolds,”
Abrams said in an in-
terview after she told
Senate Minority Lead-
er Chuck Schumer, her
chief Senate advocate,
of her plans. “I’m not
taking myself out of that
conversation, but I’m not
ready to make a determi-
nation, and I don’t think
one is necessary at this
moment.”
Abrams said she was
“deeply gratified” to
Schumer for recruiting
her to run for the Sen-
ate and giving her ample
time to make a decision.
A Senate seat, she said, is
“an extraordinarily per-
suasive idea” and a “criti-
AP PHOTO/JOHN AMIS, FILE
By Bill Barrow
Associated Press
In this Nov. 6, 2018 file photo, former Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams speaks
to supporters in Atlanta. Abrams tells The Associated Press she will not run for a U.S. Senate seat in 2020
despite being heavily recruited by national party leaders. Abrams left open the possibility of running for
president, though she says she’s in no hurry to make that call as she continues her advocacy on voting
rights and educating citizens ahead of the 2020 census.
cal role” but “not the role
that I want to play.”
For now, Abrams said
her emphasis remains
on two advocacy groups
— one focused on voting
rights, the other on ed-
ucating residents ahead
of the 2020 census — that
she helped launch after
her November loss to Re-
publican Brian Kemp.
She also will consider
a rematch against Kemp
in 2022, and some of her
confidants say that office
still rests at the center of
her near-term ambitions.
Separately, Abrams has
been floated as a poten-
tial
vice-presidential
pick for an eventual
Democratic
nominee,
particularly if former
Vice President Joe Biden,
a 76-year-old white man,
claims the nomination.
The two met recently in
Washington, but Abrams
later downplayed the
idea of teaming up, at
least for now. “You don’t
run for second place,”
she said on ABC’s “The
View.”
Abrams met Schumer
on Monday in Washing-
ton, ending months of ea-
ger courting by the hard-
charging New Yorker
and leaving him to plot
another uphill path to
reversing Republicans’
53-47 Senate advantage.
“He was extraordinari-
ly gracious,” Abrams said.
Georgia is among a
handful of states with
Senate races where Dem-
ocrats need an upset to
have hopes of a new ma-
jority. Schumer has been
open in his belief that
Abrams would have the
best shot to defeat Repub-
lican Sen. David Perdue,
who in his first term has
become one of President
Donald Trump’s most
loyal Capitol Hill allies.
Schumer also is looking
to Montana and Texas
for unlikely but possible
victories. But as in Geor-
gia, he has not yet landed
headliner
candidates.
Democrats in Washing-
ton want Montana Gov.
Steve Bullock to take on
Republican Sen. Steve
Daines, but Bullock,
twice elected governor
in a state Trump won, is
eying a presidential run
instead.
In Texas, former Rep.
Beto O’Rourke is running
for president instead of
reprising his 2018 Senate
bid that fell short against
Republican Sen. Ted
Cruz. Texas Democrats
could turn to Rep. Joa-
quin Castro as their best
shot to unseat Sen. John
Cornyn. Castro’s broth-
er, Julian, is running for
president.
Beyond Senate im-
plications,
national
Democrats had hoped
an Abrams candida-
cy would fuel turnout
among young and non-
white voters to help the
party’s
presidential
nominee in an emerg-
ing battleground state.
Trump won Georgia by
5 percentage points in
2016 but fell short of a
majority.
Schumer began his
Georgia recruiting ef-
fort by inviting Abrams
to deliver Democrats’ re-
sponse to Trump’s State
of the Union address in
February, making her
the first black woman to
give an opposition re-
sponse and further ele-
vating her status in the
party despite her loss.
“I began with skepti-
cism,” Abrams said of her
deliberations, influenced
in part by the years she
spent leading the Demo-
cratic minority in Geor-
gia’s General Assembly.
Abrams said she could
envision “the best day
and the worst day” in a
chamber known for its
slow pace and increas-
ingly bitter partisanship.
“But for me it was what
do I do every day, and
is this the role I want to
play for six years? Is this
the role I want to play for
12 years or 18 years?” she
said. “Because this is a
See ABRAMS on page 10