Stacey Abrams’s Remarkable Campaign for Vice President

Stacey Abrams has a theory about how Joe Biden can beat Donald Trump: Pick her as his running mate.

“We have to win the election. And I would point out that I ran the most successful campaign to engage the communities we need to build the broadest coalition necessary in 2020, because what we are going to see on the ground is that this is going to be a campaign unlike anything that’s been run before,” Abrams told me.

Abrams pointed to her run for governor of Georgia two years ago: “If you look at what we were able to accomplish in Georgia, the growth of the numbers and the composition of the voters, I would put my capacity to win an election as the VP running mate alongside anyone’s.”

This is an unusually direct statement from an aspiring vice-presidential pick.

Abrams would be an unusual pick for such a big promotion, especially in the new coronavirus era, when every big job in government just got bigger. So she’s running an unusual campaign—strategic interviews with Pod Save America and Elle; fans talking her up in a New York Times op-ed and behind the scenes; an appearance on The View in which she said she thought Biden would be smart to pick a woman of color. Oh, and she also happens to have a conveniently timed and titled new book coming out in June: Our Time Is Now. “If and when questions come up about her ambition or her potential political future, she answers them honestly, which is something she’s done her entire life," argued her spokesman Seth Bringman.