Stacey Abrams, the former Democratic majority leader of the Georgia House and a twice-failed gubernatorial candidate, said the victory of President-Elect Donald Trump has been overstated.
Abrams remarked in a Monday interview with MSNBC that Trump, who secured all seven swing states and the popular vote, ultimately won with “less than 50% of the electorate,” meaning that the victory against Vice President Kamala Harris was not as decisive as others have claimed.
“Donald Trump won the election, but it wasn’t a landslide,” she told MSNBC host Chris Hayes. “He got more people, but this was not the seismic shift where 57%, 58% of America said no.”
Trump nevertheless made inroads with young voters, as well as black and Hispanic populations which usually vote for Democrats, and became the first Republican to win the popular vote in twenty years. The incoming commander-in-chief secured 49.9% of the popular vote against the 48.4% secured by Harris, while the former won 312 electoral votes and the latter won 226 electoral votes.
The remarks in the interview came as Abrams contrasted the “decency” displayed by the recently deceased President Jimmy Carter with the approach to politics taken by Trump.
Abrams recently received criticism for contending that residents of Georgia, from which Carter also hailed, faced voter suppression last year because of their new election security law.
Georgia Republicans approved a law four years ago which increased election standards by adding voter identification requirements, expanding in-person early voting, and stopping officials from sending unsolicited absentee ballot applications to voters. Abrams claimed in an interview with CNN that record early turnout in Georgia last year did not mean voters were not dissuaded.
“While we are excited about who is showing up, we have to understand that turnout does not mean there is not voter suppression activity,” Abrams asserted. “One of the reasons we are seeing early lines is because they can no longer use the easier method of voting by mail.”
