‘I’m Not Delusional’: Stacey Abrams Claims She ‘Never Denied’ Losing In 2018

Democratic Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams claimed Wednesday that she had “never denied” losing the 2018 gubernatorial race to current Governor Brian Kemp (R-GA).

Abrams made the claim on ABC’s midday talk show “The View,” saying that she was “not delusional” and would likely have noticed had she been living in the Georgia governor’s mansion all this time.

WATCH:

.@staceyabrams: “I have never denied that I lost” the last Georgia gubernatorial election. “I’m not delusional, just so that’s clear.” pic.twitter.com/nQElNjV6XB

— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) September 14, 2022

Co-host Sunny Hostin began the conversation, noting that Abrams had voiced concerns about “voter suppression” in 2018 and asking whether she felt that was still a major concern going into a 2022 election that was essentially a rematch between the two candidates.

“When you lost in 2018, you didn’t traditionally concede, which I appreciated, because you cited voter suppression,” Hostin said. “Are you confident that this will be a free and fair … election and not a repeat performance of what happened before?”

“So, I appreciate the question and the framing,” Abrams replied. “I have never denied that I lost, I don’t live in the governor’s mansion — I would have noticed.”

The audience laughed as Abrams shook her head.

“There’s this clip that’s going around and it shows me saying that we won,” Abrams continued, going on to explain that what she had meant was that her push to get more people registered to vote and engaged in what was going on had driven more people out to the polls — from communities that traditionally had lower turnouts — had been successful.

“But I’m not delusional, just so that’s clear,” Abrams insisted, prompting laughter. “But what we know is that the issues that we raised in ’18, the fact that 214 precincts were shut down, the 53,000 people had their voter registrations held hostage, that 1.4 million people were purged — including half a million people who simply had chosen not to vote — that we were able to tackle that because we raised the issues.”

Abrams, who never offered a traditional “concession” to Kemp, has long claimed that she would acknowledge that he was the governor — but has always included as an aside that the system in Georgia is broken.

“I acknowledge that [Kemp] won, but I will never say that a system that is broken — that denied people their right to vote — is the right thing to have in the state and as part of democracy,” she said.

*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases