AUSTIN, Texas —
After a candid conversation Monday, Georgia 2018 gubernatorial runner-up Stacey Abrams suggested that a 2020 presidential run wasn't a goal of hers. But now it appears to be, in her words, "on the table."
Abrams, a Democrat, raised her national profile significantly after narrowly losing a hard-fought battle with Republican Brian Kemp for governor of the Peach State. The election came amid accusations of voter suppression while then-secretary of state Kemp was acting as the state's chief elections officer. Ten days after the election, Abrams admitted she could not win, but did not concede.
She gave the Democrats' response to President Trump's State of the Union address last month.
While sitting on the South by Southwest Stage in Austin, Abrams talked about a part of her book “Minority Leader: How to Build Your Future and Make Real Change” where she explains her progress planning spreadsheet that lays out the year, her job, age and her task for that year.
For 2020, she said she wants to be in a job that pays but, above all else, her goal is more specific.
“No matter what my job is, my task is to make certain that a Democrat is elected, not only to the White House but that we have democratic majority in the Senate and a democratic majority in Congress.”
She said 2028 could be her year if she meets her 2020 goal of helping a Democrat in the White House and if that Democrat serves two terms. Abrams acknowledged how her loss in the Georgia Governor’s race in 2018 played into her spreadsheet.
She said she made provision for not winning some elections saying, “There are things you want that you’re not going to get.”
But just hours after that conversation, Abrams appears to be changing her tune, seeming to suggest she may throw her hat in the ring for president in the upcoming election. Around 3:45 p.m. Monday, the former Georgia Democratic candidate tweeted that a 2020 run is "definitely on the table."
As for the 2018 election, she couldn’t plan for the how behind that.
“Not in the way it happened, that I did not foresee at all,” Abrams said.
Georgia Senator David Perdue’s seat is up for grabs in 2020 and Abrams said considering it.
"I have I think an extraordinary set of opportunities before me and my responsibility is to make sure I pick the one that makes sense - that I'm the right person, it's the right job and the right time," she explained in February.