Stacey Abrams said she would focus her efforts in the 15 months until Election Day on combating voter suppression and boosting participation in the 2020 census. | Jessica McGowan/Getty Images 2020 elections Stacey Abrams says she would be open to VP consideration 'by any nominee'

Stacey Abrams, the former Democratic nominee for Georgia governor, said Tuesday she is open to becoming the running mate for “any” of the roughly two dozen White House candidates vying to take on President Donald Trump in 2020.

“I would be honored to be considered by any nominee,” she said in an interview with The New York Times .


Abrams announced Tuesday she would not enter the crowded Democratic presidential primary and would instead focus her efforts in the 15 months until Election Day on combating voter suppression and boosting participation in the 2020 census.

“I’ve just come to the decision that my best value add, the strongest contribution I can give to this primary, would be to make sure our nominee is coming into an environment where there’s strong voter protections in place,” Abrams told the Times.

Abrams said she “would not have publicly raised the possibility” of launching a campaign “if it was not a legitimate thought,” but added she has “been pleased with the direction of the field.”

Abrams announced in April she would not run for Senate in 2020, despite efforts by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) to recruit her in the race to oust Republican incumbent David Perdue.

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Abrams said Tuesday she is “certainly open to other political opportunities” and insisted “there are people who are running who are the right people” to challenge Perdue in next year’s election and become Georgia’s next senator.

“I appreciate the importance of that role. But I am not so arrogant as to believe I’m the only one who can win that,” she said.

The former state lawmaker, whose gubernatorial campaign and narrow defeat by Republican Brian Kemp in 2018 attracted significant attention from national media and Democratic Party officials, has been the subject of speculation that she might make an appealing vice presidential nominee on the 2020 Democratic ticket.

Prior to former Vice President Joe Biden’s official entrance into the White House race in April, media reports indicated his tentative campaign was considering offering Abrams the role of his running mate. But she dismissed those rumors, citing ongoing deliberations to mount her own presidential bid.

Some Democratic presidential contenders have already hinted at their prospective vice presidential picks, emphasizing the importance of gender and racial diversity on the party’s eventual ticket.

Former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke said in March he would find it “very difficult not to select a woman” as his running mate. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) pledged in June he would turn down a vice presidential nod if Democrats nominated a man to run against Trump, and declared his opposition to all-white White House tickets.

Biden said in July it would be “great” to have a female vice president, assessing that “it helps having a woman on the ticket.” He claimed earlier this month he could “think of at least six or seven people, four of whom are women, who in fact ... aren’t in the race, who are totally qualified to be president.”

A record six female candidates are competing in the Democratic presidential primary.