Stacey Abrams rejected efforts to compare her refusal to concede the Georgia governor’s race in 2018 to former President Donald Trump’s claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 election, noting her comments were based on voter access.

Abrams, who is running her second gubernatorial bid in the Peach State, has focused much of her campaign on voting rights and ballot access, particularly after her loss to Gov. Brian Kemp in 2018, which she said was a result of voter suppression. The Democratic candidate later acknowledged Kemp had won the election despite never conceding, prompting criticism from Republicans who have called her actions the original “Big Lie.” …

“Democrats attack Trump and Republicans for believing these conspiracies, believing what they call the ‘Big Lie.’ But the original Big Lie proponent was Stacey Abrams,” Brian Robinson, a Georgia-based Republican strategist, told Politico. “She was ahead of her time, as she is on so many things.”

Abrams has rejected that notion, arguing her refusal to concede was based on a lack of voter access rather than claims an election was outright fraudulent, noting her goal was not to overturn the results of the race.