Former NFL head coach Bill Parcells once said, “You are what your record says you are.” Democrat celebrity candidates Stacey Abrams and “Beto” O’Rourke are a combined 0-5 running for major offices.
0-5.
No amount of Hollywood money or Hollywoodization, loving TV attention and book deals can fix that. But the left certainly tried. Nearly $200 million was spent on these two losers just in 2022. The total for all five losses is more than $300 million. Beto, known in the real world as Robert Francis, lost a run for Senate, president, and now governor. Texas might actually have to create another important office just so he could lose a fourth time.
To her credit, Abrams only lost twice, both for governor.
Abrams, who repeatedly complained about her loss in 2018, was pre-whining the 2022 result, “Suppression is about barriers to access.”. Of course, there she was in 2019 in the New York Times with a frowny face next to the headline. “Why Stacey Abrams is still saying she won.” She became Democrats’ top example of election denial.
And this wasn’t some minor candidate. This was one of the top Democrat nominees in the country. Had she won in 2018, she likely would’ve been vice president for President Joe Biden. Had she won this time, she would’ve catapulted to the front of the line as a possible Biden replacement.
The Atlantic made the case for her to be Biden’s pick in April 2020. The Washington Post wrote a ridiculous piece depicting Abrams as a star to push her vice presidential candidacy. The Post compared her to people with “the last names Clinton (both Hillary and Bill), Sanders, Warren, Jackson and Obama (both Michelle and Barack).”
“Pandemonium ensues as she walks to the far left of the stage, like a runway supermodel, stops on a dime, poses, tilts her head slightly and smiles,” Washington Post writer Kevin Powell laughably described.
She certainly was a consensus media choice. You can tell that by all the attention she got – what the industry calls earned media. They were the magazine covers: Time, Marie Claire, Essence, Newsweek (“Can Stacey Abrams Save the Democrats – Again?” ) Even Variety, with actress Viola Davis.
She was on “The Daily Show” five times, according to her extensive Internet Movie Database profile. Also, twice for “Desus & Mero,” once for the TV show “Black-ish,” twice on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” and you get the point.
The most ridiculous of all was “Star Trek: Discovery,” which cast her as “President of United Earth,” wearing a goofy cape. Oddly, she wore a superhero-esque cape in one of her Washington Post photos.
There was even the “Stacy Abrams Action Figure.” (Originally $20, But after her second loss perhaps they will remarket it as an inaction figure.)
At least the media still love her. The Daily Beast claimed, “Back-fence gossip and racism scuttled Abrams’ second bid for Georgia Governor before it got off the ground.” The article argued that there was a backlash to the fame. She was criticized for “dining with Hollywood elites, hobnobbing with superstars, and appearing on national talk shows and at concerts where the applause was deafening. That she was too busy being famous.”
That piece ended with, “Abrams doesn’t need to change. We do.”
Yahoo! News wrote how, “Abrams made many Black women feel like they were superheroes.” And it made Abrams, if not superrich, then millionaire rich. She went from a net worth of $109,000 in 2018 to $3.17 million, according to NPR.
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O’Rourke didn’t get the Abrams treatment, but he did get a lot of media love and raised a lot of money. NBC News Political Director Chuck Todd called him the “Bobby Kennedy of Millennials.” O’Rourke filled the media role trying to turn Texas blue that Wendy Davis once filled. Perhaps you remember the media obsession with her wearing her pink tennis shoes.
Vanity Fair ran a 2018 cover story on O’Rourke. Writer Peter Hamby wrote, “He’s authentic, full of energy, and stripped of consultant-driven sterility. On what planet is Beto O’Rourke not a presidential contender, even if he loses?” Apparently, this one, since he was crushed in 2020 running for president.
ABC fan girl and correspondent Paula Faris embarrassed herself just days before the 2018 election, telling O’Rourke, “You’re a rock star!” She had a huge, goofy smile on her face, hilariously starstruck.
Politico ran a post-2018 loss piece actually claiming, “Beto Has a Path to the Presidency: Lincoln’s.” “Like Lincoln, O’Rourke is charismatic, tall, lanky, filled with energy, an accomplished public speaker and a natural campaigner.”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution teed up the 2022 election in October, noting “Stacey Abrams aims for history with second run for governor.” The newspaper got its wish for both Abrams and O’Rourke. They are both history. Will they stay that way?
