Stacey Abrams — who recently said she has not ruled out a presidential bid — told reporters on “CBS This Morning” that the country needs to “start evolving what the face of leadership looks like.” | Emma McIntyre/Getty Images 2020 Elections Stacey Abrams says she won't enter the 2020 primary as Biden's running mate

Stacey Abrams, the former Georgia gubernatorial candidate, shut down rumors on Wednesday that she would enter the Democratic primary as former Vice President Joe Biden’s running mate.

“I think you don’t run for second place,” Abrams said flatly when asked on “The View” about plans to join Biden’s presidential ticket.


Buzz about a Biden-Abrams campaign grew after the pair met for lunch earlier this month, though neither candidate has decided whether to officially jump into the crowded pool of contenders. Abrams said on Wednesday she had not ruled out the possibility of her own presidential bid, nor had she nixed the idea of a Senate run in 2020.

“If I’m going to enter a primary, then I’m going to enter a primary,” she said. “And if I don’t enter the primary, my job is to make certain that the best Democrat becomes the nominee. And whoever wins the primary, that we make sure that person gets elected in 2020.”

Abrams also did not shut down the idea of joining Biden’s ticket down the road if asked.

“Running in a primary to be the vice president is very different than someone who has been selected by the party to be the nominee asking you to serve as a partner,” she said. “And I am open to all options.”

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In an interview on “CBS This Morning” earlier Wednesday, however, Abrams said she believed that a woman or minority candidate would clinch the Democratic nomination and spoke of a need for the country to “start evolving what the face of leadership looks like.”

“I think the presidency is about reasserting who we are as a nation, our capacity for cohesion, and our ability to talk about marginalized communities and those who are outsiders without excluding the majority,” she said.

When asked on CBS about her lunch with Biden, Abrams would not say whether the two discussed a joint presidential ticket.

“We talked about a lot of things,” she said, “but that was not the core issue.”

Abrams, who is 45, African-American from the South, could appeal to a different bloc of voters than the 76-year-old Biden, a partnership possibly aiming to bring together a disjointed Democratic Party. Though Abrams narrowly lost the 2018 Georgia governor’s race, her national fame has continued to climb in the time since, particularly after she delivered her party’s response to President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address in February.

On “The View,” Abrams called Biden a “lovely man who has done a great deal for our country,” and approved of the regret the former vice president expressed Tuesday when speaking about his his often-criticized handling of the Anita Hill testimony during the 1991 Senate confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

“What he has done is opened the door and said I know that there was something wrong, I want to take responsibility,” Abrams said of Biden. “Now, whether we think he’s taken sufficient responsibility will be determined as the process continues, but I think he’s begun the process appropriately by saying I know there’s pain and I want to respond to that pain.”

Only recently has Abrams said she would consider her own run for the White House in 2020, a move that she said earlier this year she wouldn’t consider until 2028.

“I think that the success I had in our election transforming the electorate, the work I’ve done as a business leader, as a civic leader, as a political leader, positions me to be just as capable as becoming president of the United States as anyone running,” she said on CBS. “My responsibility, though, is to make sure I’m running for the right reasons and at the right time.”

She added on CBS that she’d had meetings with a number of White House contenders, but declined to elaborate on her conversation with Biden. Reflecting on the presidency in general, she called for a Democratic candidate with an inclusive vision for the country.

“Everyone wants to be seen, and the best politicians are the ones who can bring people together — not by pretending we all have the same issues, but by recognizing the obstacles that some of us face and the opportunities that all of us want,” Abrams said.