Stacey Abrams Makes Her 'Big Announcement'

Democrat Stacey Abrams, who vaulted onto the national political stage championing voting rights during an unsuccessful 2018 run for Georgia governor, announced on Tuesday that she's launching a new multistate voter protection initiative and not running for president in 2020. Abrams revealed plans for the multimillion-dollar initiative, called Fair Fight 2020, during a speech before a labor union convention in Las Vegas, the AP reports. The project will staff and fund voter protection teams in battleground states across the country ahead of next year's elections. The move follows months of speculation over what Abrams' next move in politics might be, including whether she'd join the crowded field of 2020 presidential hopefuls. Abrams played off that earlier Tuesday by teasing a "BIG ANNOUNCEMENT" to come, Politico reports.

"We're going to win because there are only two things stopping us in 2020: making sure people have a reason to vote and that they have the right to vote. Well I've decided to leave it to a whole bunch of other folks to make sure they have a reason to vote," Abrams said, referring to the field of Democratic candidates. "But I'm here today to announce Fair Fight 2020 to make sure everyone has the right to vote." A statement from Fair Fight says the initiative will "either directly fund, or assist in raising the funds for, robust voter protection operations, which will be run by Democratic state parties and allies." "This is what putting in the work looks like. This is what building real accountability & power means," tweeted Florida's Andrew Gillum in response to the news. And at the Washington Post, columnist Paul Waldman says that while Abrams' effort might be "less glamorous" than the presidential race, it might actually be "the most important fight of 2020." (More Stacey Abrams stories.)