Failed Democratic Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams is urging Democrats to move beyond past elections and focus on the future.
Abrams's Wednesday remarks to a crowd of University of New England students came despite her refusal to concede to Republican governor Brian Kemp and continued insistence that she actually won the race. Abrams struck a different tone when asked about the current 2020 Democratic presidential field.
"We have to stop re-litigating past elections and have to start planning for future elections," she said, according to an Associated Press report. She called on Democrats to fight voter ID laws and efforts to purge voter rolls.
A Washington Free Beacon analysis found that Abrams had publicly stated she won the gubernatorial election a dozen times within six months of losing. Abrams, a former state representative, told the New York Times "I won" and argued on MSNBC that the election was "stolen" by Georgia Republicans.
Abrams's plea to forget the past came the day after former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton renewed a public feud with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.), her top primary challenger in 2016. "Nobody likes him, nobody wants to work with him, he got nothing done," Clinton said in a Hollywood Reporter interview. "He was a career politician. It's all just baloney and I feel so bad that people got sucked into it."
Clinton initially declined to say whether she would endorse Sanders if the socialist Vermont senator won the nomination, though she later backtracked on Twitter.
I thought everyone wanted my authentic, unvarnished views!
But to be serious, the number one priority for our country and world is retiring Trump, and, as I always have, I will do whatever I can to support our nominee.
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) January 22, 2020
Abrams likewise struck a neutral tone in the primary, telling students that Democrats had an "extraordinary crop" of candidates, adding that she would be "all in" if asked to help on the campaign trail. She has previously expressed willingness to serve as vice president under any of the Democratic candidates.