Stacey Abrams, the two-time Democratic Georgia gubernatorial candidate, told MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace on Monday that she never denied losing her 2018 race but instead sought to redefine victory to inspire her supporters.
Abrams, who has run twice for Georgia governor and may run again, refused to formally concede to Gov. Brian Kemp (R) in 2018. At the time, she accused Kemp, then Georgia’s secretary of state, of enacting policies that suppressed voters. Since then, she has denied "challenging" the election and acknowledged Kemp as the legitimate governor "under the rules that were in place."
Wallace interviewed Abrams on Monday’s episode of her podcast, "The Best People." After calling Abrams a "bada--," Wallace asked what she means when she warns against seeing political victory as a "cinematic moment."
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Stacey Abrams argued Democrats must look for cultural victories in addition to electoral ones. (Elijah Nouvelage/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
"In 2018, when I lost my election, I was never confused about it," Abrams claimed. "I had conversations with communities, and I would say, ‘We won’, and that just would send people into these, you know, paroxysms of hatred. What I was telling them is: ‘Look, not getting the title did not mean that we didn’t make progress.’"
The former candidate, who frequently then argued, "When you are trying to defend democracy, when you’re trying to serve the people, progress counts as victory. Because their goal is your silence. Their goal is your complicity. Their goal is your subjugation. Every day we remain free, that is progress."
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Abrams has faced criticism for how she reacted to her 2018 loss. (Drew Angerer, Getty Images / Nathan Posner, Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Abrams said Democrats will continue to lose politically if they only define victory through elections.
"But if we have to wait for this large announcement, like elections, to say that ‘This is when we win,’ we’re going to keep losing," she argued. "I say ‘Let’s look for the small interstitial victories we can grasp—those small moments of progress we can make—because that adds up to the actual victory we’re trying to get to."
Stacey Abrams has repeatedly warned about the U.S. drifting toward autocracy. (Getty Images)