Former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams said President Biden “picked the right person for his administration” when he chose Kamala Harris as his vice president.
“Not getting that job is not a mark against me. It’s not a mark against ambition. It was Joe Biden’s decision about who he wanted and he picked the right person for his administration,” Abrams said in an interview on theSkimm’s podcast “Skimm’d From The Couch,” released Tuesday evening.
“And I applaud them, I work with them, I’m so proud of them. But it also made me reassess how far behind my, you know, how, where I was on my sort of growth path. There’s always more to learn. There’s always more to learn, there’s always more to be, there’s always more you can develop,” she continued.
Abrams, who narrowly lost her bid for the Georgia governorship in 2018 and became a leading voting rights advocate, actively jockeyed for the role of vice president throughout the 2020 campaign. She publicly said that she would make an “excellent” running mate for Biden, that she would be “honored” to hold the position, and at one point candidly said, “Of course I want it.”
Biden, however, ultimately chose Harris to join him on the democratic ticket.
Abrams revealed that she still has presidential ambitions, telling theSkimm, “It’s still a job that I want.” She did, however, concede that there are other things she wants to do before launching a bid for the White House.
“It’s still a job that I want. But it’s a job that I need to be prepared to have. And there are other things I want to do that I think will make me better at that job. So no, the goals haven’t changed. The timing may change,” Abrams said, referencing a previous goal she set to be president by a certain year.
Abrams sounded a similar note last week, when she said in an interview that she “absolutely” has an ambition to be president one day.
While the former gubernatorial candidate may not have landed the role of vice president, she is still finding ways to amplify her core messages. Abrams led the effort to turn out Georgia’s Black vote in last year’s general election, which many people credit for flipping the southern state blue in both the presidential and senate races.
She has also worked to expand voting rights across the country.
Later this year, Abrams is set to launch a multicity speaking tour, which will focus on politics and activism.
Additionally, an NBCUniversal unit last week acquired the rights for Abrams’s new political thriller for a small-screen adaptation. The book, which was released on May 11, is titled “While Justice Sleeps.”
The former Georgia House lawmaker also opened up during the podcast interview about how she has grown in confidence and ambition. She described herself as having an “A-minus B-plus personality,” adding that her confidence has grown over time.
“I am very driven, but I am not usually in competition with other people. I’m in competition with what I want. So, I was never the person who picked out, you know, you’re my target, like, whatever, do what you want to do, I’m good. It was, I want this thing so here’s what I need to do to get this thing and make it mine. That part has never dissipated,” Abrams said.
“I think my confidence has grown, of course, over time. And my belief in my right to want these things has gotten stronger,” she continued.
She said the first time she realized she wanted more than what she was “supposed to want,” she felt both terrified and freed.
“It was this liberating moment to realize, huh? I have the right to think about bigger things,” she added.
She said she spends a lot of time discussing ambition because a number of people, especially young people from marginalized or minority communities, are often instructed not to be ambitious.
“So many communities, especially when you’re young, when you are a marginalized minority community, if you’re from the outside, of sort of the norm of success, you’re told not to be ambitious and they never use that language, they just chide you or correct you or steer you, or they just never talk about it in front of you,” Abrams said.
Updated at 1:08 p.m.