Candidate for governor of Georgia Stacy Abrams denied allegations that she refused to recognize Brian Kemp as governor after she lost to the Republican candidate during the 2018 gubernatorial election.
“I acknowledged that Brian Kemp won – I acknowledged it repeatedly in that speech,” she said on Fox News Sunday. “I very clearly say I know I’m not the governor, but what I will not do is allow the lack of nuance in our conversations to dull and obfuscate the challenges faced by our citizens.”
The Democratic nominee, who will run against Kemp again during this year’s midterm elections, stated that a 2019 speech in which she said “we won” was taken out of context. She gave the speech after losing to Kemp.
Abrams also pushed back on claims from the show’s host, Shannon Bream, that voter suppression is not a huge issue after the host noted that higher voter registration numbers and a federal court decision in early October dismissing a challenge to the state’s new voting restrictions.
“Voter suppression is not about turnout. It’s about the barriers and obstacles to access,” Abrams said. “Voter suppression is when there’s difficulty registering things on the road, being able to cast a ballot and having that ballot counted.”
Abrams’s appearance on the right-wing news channel comes days after she invited both Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to join her on the campaign trail as she enters into the final stage of her quest to oust Kemp.
“Yes. We’ve reached out to – we’ve been in conversations with the Biden administration, and we look forward to having folks from the Biden administration, including the president himself if he can make it,” the lawyer and voting rights activist said.
The Abrams-Kemp matchup is one of the most anticipated in next month’s election because the results could reveal more about the voting patterns of Georgia (a red state) and its growing Democratic electorate. Abrams lost to Kemp by 55,000 votes in 2018.
