‘It’s irrelevant’: Stacey Abrams brushes aside Trump mockingly endorsing her in order to needle Georgia GOP Gov. Brian Kemp

Former Georgia state House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams.

Andy Kropa/Invision/AP

• Stacey Abrams brushed aside former President Trump’s invocation of her name at GOP rallies.
• For months, Trump has taunted Brian Kemp by saying that Abrams might have been a better governor.
• “His posture is not relevant to the work that I’m doing or to the positions I take,” she said of Trump on CNN.

For months, former President Donald Trump has brought up Stacey Abrams among the GOP faithful.

Abrams, a former Democratic lawmaker in the Georgia House of Representatives who narrowly lost the state’s 2018 gubernatorial election against now-Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, has been focused on her voting-rights advocacy and rarely mentions the former president.

However, Trump, who is still upset that Kemp refused to overturn the election victory of now-President Joe Biden in Georgia last fall, has continued to poke his onetime ally by repeating the claim that he’d prefer Abrams in the Governor’s Mansion instead of his fellow Republican.

During an Ohio rally this past summer, the former president suggested that Abrams might have been a more preferable choice for the GOP than Kemp.

“By the way, we might have been better if she did win for governor of Georgia, if you want to know the truth,” Trump said. “We might have had a better governor if she did win.”

While speaking at a rally in Georgia last month, Trump once again invoked Abrams in order to take a dig at Kemp, who was not present at the event.

“Stacey, would you like to take his place? It’s OK with me,” the former president said of the GOP governor, who’s up for reelection in 2022. “Of course having her, I think, might be better than having your existing governor, if you want to know what I think. Might very well be better.”

During an appearance on CNN’s “Erin Burnett OutFront” last Thursday, Abrams was not impressed with Trump’s mock endorsement when asked if the former president’s comments might help or hurt her.

“It’s irrelevant,” she told Burnett. “His posture is not relevant to the work that I’m doing or to the positions I take. My responsibility is to do what I can to ensure that no matter who you are, and no matter who you choose, that you have the freedom to vote in the United States.”

She added: “That is why we have to keep laser-focused on the assault on our democracy … an assault that not only happened on Jan. 6, but has happened again and again since that time in statehouses that have restricted access to the right to vote and constricted not only that but the ability of election workers to do their jobs.”

Abrams has not yet announced if she will run against Kemp next year in a potential rematch.

While Trump has not backed any of the lesser-known Republican candidates running against Kemp in the state’s gubernatorial primary, has already endorsed Herschel Walker, the former NFL star and Heisman Trophy winner, who recently entered the 2022 US Senate race against Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock.

Read the original article on Business Insider