Beto O'Rourke suggests Stacey Abrams may have lost in a rigged election

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2020 Democrat Beto O'Rourke says Stacey Abrams should be in charge of voting rights initiatives

Former Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams says she's not a good sport about her 2018 election loss.

Former Rep. Beto O'Rourke, D-Texas, suggested former Georgia state Rep. Stacey Abrams' gubernatorial race defeat in 2018 might not have been a fair fight.

O'Rourke, during an appearance on "The View" Tuesday morning, floated the idea that Abrams' race against Gov. Brian Kemp may have been rigged against her.

"The grace with which she met that defeat on an unfair, unlevel playing field with the Secretary of State perhaps rigging, in part, that election...is inspiring stuff at a time that our democracy is so badly broken," he said.

O'Rourke was referring to Abrams' failed gubernatorial bid in which she refused to concede the race to her opponent, then-secretary of state Brian Kemp. Kemp oversaw the election results and faced voter suppression accusations, which he has denied.

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Abrams herself suggested the election was flawed, saying that she wouldn't concede because it would indicate the outcome was "right and true and proper."

The Democrat has also accused Kemp of being “an architect of voter suppression that spent the last eight years knitting together a system of voter suppression that is unparalleled in America.”

O'Rourke's comments echoed those of Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., also a 2020 hopeful, who claimed both Abrams and Florida Democrat Andrew Gillum would be governor if not for voter suppression.

“Let’s say this loud and clear: Without voter suppression, Stacey Abrams would be the governor of Georgia; Andrew Gillum is the governor of Florida," she said at the beginning of May.

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O'Rourke also indicated that he would be willing to make Abrams his running mate if he became the Democratic Party's nominee.

"If I were fortunate enough to be the nominee," he said after mentioning Abrams, "it's hard to imagine a scenario where I wouldn't be fortunate enough to also be able to run with one of these extraordinary women in our country."