Campaign Action
Stacey Abrams is not conceding in a Georgia governor’s race that was rife with voter suppression overseen by her Republican opponent, Brian Kemp. With 99 percent of votes counted, Kemp is only narrowly above the 50 percent of the total vote that would trigger a runoff under Georgia law.
“I'm here tonight to tell you votes remain to be counted. There's voices that are waiting to be heard,” Abrams said in a stirring speech at the close of the night, one that showed why she is, at a minimum, the Democrat to come closest to winning this seat than any since Georgia’s last Democratic governor was elected in 1998.
Though Kemp leads by 75,000 votes:
The [Abrams] campaign cited several specific places in the state that could play a role in a scenario to force the runoff, including three of the state's largest counties that "have reported only a portion of the votes that were submitted by early mail" and four other large counties that "have reported exactly 0 votes by mail," according to the campaign. Together, it said, the seven counties "are expected to return a minimum of 77,000 ballots."
Kemp is Georgia’s current secretary of state and used that position as the state’s top elections official to suppress tens of thousands of votes and baselessly claim that Democrats had attempted to hack voting systems (they had exchanged concerned emails about vulnerabilities). On Election Day, reports abounded about voting machine problems and hours-long lines in Democratic precincts. Several precincts stayed open late, but that’s not helpful for people who abandoned long lines earlier in the day. Now Kemp will remain in charge as the final votes are counted and a decision is made about whether his own race is going to a runoff. His record of integrity is not inspiring.