Stacey Abrams said she never denied losing the 2018 Georgia gubernatorial race but sought to redefine victory to keep supporters engaged and focused on incremental gains.
Abrams made the remarks Monday on MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace’s podcast "The Best People," telling Wallace she was "never confused" about the election result and that she had conversations with communities in which she framed progress as a form of winning. Abrams, a two-time Democratic candidate for governor who has not ruled out another run, refused to formally concede to Gov. Brian Kemp after the 2018 contest and accused Kemp, then Georgia’s secretary of state, of policies that suppressed voters. She has since said she did not "challenge" the election outcome and acknowledged Kemp as the legitimate governor "under the rules that were in place."
Wallace, who at one point called Abrams a "bada–" during the interview, asked what Abrams meant when she warned against seeing political victory as a "cinematic moment." Abrams said she intentionally reframed the conversation after 2018 to avoid allowing despair or anger to silence organizing. "What I was telling them is: 'Look, not getting the title did not mean that we didn't make progress,'" she said.
Abrams argued that defending democracy and serving communities produces measurable gains even when an electoral tally does not immediately yield a title. "When you are trying to defend democracy, when you’re trying to serve the people, progress counts as victory," she said. "Because their goal is your silence. Their goal is your complicity. Their goal is your subjugation. Every day we remain free, that is progress."
She cautioned Democrats against measuring success solely by election-night outcomes. "If we have to wait for this large announcement, like elections, to say that 'This is when we win,' we're going to keep losing," Abrams said. "I say 'Let's look for the small interstitial victories we can grasp—those small moments of progress we can make—because that adds up to the actual victory we're trying to get to.'"
Abrams’ approach has been a point of debate within Democratic circles, where some activists and leaders have emphasized both electoral wins and sustained civic engagement as necessary to expand voting rights and influence policy. Her refusal to concede in 2018 drew national attention at the time and prompted discussion about election administration in Georgia, an issue that continued to shape state and national politics in subsequent cycles.
In the podcast interview, Abrams did not repudiate the official outcome but defended her strategy of using organizing and policy wins to maintain momentum. Her comments come as Georgia remains a closely watched state in national politics, and as Democrats assess how to convert grassroots gains into durable political power.
