I squint at the 538 headline asking “What happened to Stacey Abrams? ” The story continues with the weird presumption that she ought possibly be winning her race for governor when, by all accounts on a blind test going in, she really should not be winning her race — just as she is not.

I suppose her’s is not as ridiculous a spot as the Florida gubernatorial bid of Charlie Crist or the Texas gubernatorial bid of Beto O’Rourke — but there is at least one basic principle at work for all three. Hers sidles next to O’Rourke in the “newly minted celebrity politician on Utne Reader cover” or in Abrams’s case maybe Ms. — or, gone Hollywood on everyone. The progressive millennial podcasters I regularly listen to have now soured on the candidacies of Beto probably in a way they never will for Stacey even if she drops in for another election contest or two — viewing him as privileged white male dude who needs to let someone else in. Charlie Crist is a tad baffling, but I guess the state Democrats need someone and have nothing better to go with, and he sees an off-ramp from congress critter to lobbyist.

The article takes pains to note her relatively bipartisan record. Sure. Another turned celebrity politician who got even less-where in her state electoral politics, Wendy Davis, checked away from her no gun control record after her gubernatorial bid. These things always slide and slip.

There was a good reason she desperately bid for Biden’s running mate. Because opportunities for immediate elections en route to the top office did not abound otherwise.

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