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Stacey Abrams gets personal in talking possible Senate race: ‘I am capable of self-doubt’

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Former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams got personal in an interview published Monday, telling The New York Times that she is “capable of self-doubt,” but mostly outside of politics.

Abrams, who is considering running for president or the Senate in 2020, told the Times that she has joked in the past that she “wasn’t good at dating so I stopped doing it.”

{mosads}”I regret that I allowed self-doubt in that one area to color how I approached an entire facet of my life. I’m working to remedy that, but it’s taken some time for me to get there. So yes, I am capable of self-doubt. It’s usually not in the professional space, but in the romantic-relationship space,” she said.

She also said she doesn’t doubt whether she should run for president or Senate in the future but added that she needs “to make certain I’m doing it for the right reasons.”

“Yes, I believe I could win a Senate election. I’m determined. I’m a very good campaigner. But the question is: Do I want to do the work of being a senator in the way that I think it should be done? And am I the best person? The answers may be no,” Abrams told the Times.

“But knowing that is not a function of doubt or confidence,” she added. “It’s a function of: Is this the most effective role for me to play? And: Does it help me do the work that I think needs to be done?”

She also said, however, that she is “absolutely” still considering running for the Senate.

“I am driven by a desire to see poverty end and economic security be a guaranteed capacity for every person. Most of the impediments or solutions are state driven, not federally driven. So shifting gears to think about the Senate was different. The Senate creates an extraordinary platform,” she said.

Abrams, a black woman, also noted during the interview that people of color are “often discouraged from not only having ambition, but they’re also told that there is something inherently arrogant in wanting more and that we should be satisfied with whatever we get.”

She said she has “long ignored those denials.”

“I do so in part because I was raised by parents who encouraged us to dream big, and they always grounded it in, ‘If you’re going to dream big, be ready to back it up.’ My life has always been about making certain I accrue the skills necessary to make my ambitions real,” she said.

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