Stacey Abrams says ‘democracy failed’ Georgia as she ends bid for governor

Yolanda Murray
00:52, Nov 19, 2018
Copyright 2015 All rights reserved. This material can't be published, transferred, copied or redistributed.
Copyright 2015 All rights reserved. This material can't be published, transferred, copied or redistributed.

Stacey Abrams, the Democratic candidate for governor in Georgia, said Friday she would no longer pursue victory in the race.

She noted that she isn't conceding, since the election was plagued by voter suppression.

"The state failed its voters", claimed Abrams in her non-concession speech.

Kemp, a hardline conservative closely aligned with Donald Trump, had remained Georgia's secretary of state overseeing elections throughout the campaign prompting suggests of a conflict of interest.

Abrams faces a narrow path to winning the Georgia gubernatorial election.

"I will not concede because the erosion of our democracy is not right", Abrams said.

Abrams, 44, had considered a court challenge to force a runoff, which is allowed by state law if neither candidate gets a majority of the vote.

"Voting is not a right for some - it is a right for all, and it is not a privilege", Abrams emphasized, echoing the mindset of African-Americans who fought only decades ago for the right to vote - which was especially suppressed in places in the Deep South, and in Georgia.

As secretary of state Kemp was responsible for, and widely criticized for, voter purges that removed more than a million people from the rolls between 2012 and 2016.

"We can no longer dwell on the divisive politics of the past but must focus on Georgia's bright and promising future", he said shortly after Ms Abrams' speech.

In the tense and testy closing weeks of the race, just about all that Georgia's Democrats and Republicans could agree on - besides desperately wanting the campaign to be over - was that Abrams would have carried a vastly different agenda into the governor's office. It is being discussed as Georgia elections officials appear to be on the cusp of certifying Republican Brian Kemp as the victor of a bitterly fought campaign that's been marred by charges of electoral malfeasance.

Lawrence-Hardy believes that Abrams will weigh evidence pointing to minority and poorer voters running into barriers at the polls before making a decision on her legal options.

Kemp, who served as the state's chief elections officer until two days after the election when he resigned as secretary of state and declared victory, has maintained that any uncounted ballots won't change the outcome. Ironically, this time around, it seems Democrats are having a tough time coming to terms with election results. The election is over and Brian Kemp is the Governor-elect.

State law sets a November 20 deadline, but secretary of state's office elections director Chris Harvey testified last week that the state had planned to certify the election results on Wednesday, a day after the deadline for counties to certify their results. The next big shot for Democrats is a 2020 Senate race, with Republican Sen.

The razor-thin margin between Abrams and Kemp is reflective of Georgia's march from once-solid Republican terrain toward becoming a purple state.

Copyright 2015 All rights reserved. This material can't be published, transferred, copied or redistributed.


Popular

CONNECT