Vienna, Ga. – Republican Brian Kemp called the backlash over the audio of him warning supporters about Stacey Abrams' voter turnout operation "ridiculous," and said it was an example of his attempts to energize conservative voters.
The Democrat's campaign and its allies quickly seized on the recording after it was leaked to the Rolling Stone earlier in the week. In the tape, recorded at a closed-door fundraiser, Kemp spoke of Abrams' robust efforts to turn out absentee ballot votes.
"They have just an unprecedented number of that, which is something that continues to concern us," he said, "especially if everybody uses and exercises their right to vote — which they absolutely can — and mail those ballots in, we gotta have heavy turnout to offset that."
Kemp, who spoke Thursday during a three-day swing through rural Georgia, pointed to a standby line in his stump speech telling supporters that Democrats are trying to rev up turnout to presidential-levels and that Republicans need to keep pace.
“It’s a ridiculous story,” he said at a campaign stop in Vienna. “We’ve bent over backwards to help anybody that’s eligible get registered to vote and cast their ballot. What I was referencing was they’re doing a good job of working absentee ballots, so we’ve got to do the same thing to get our vote out. It wasn’t a gaffe.”
Kemp’s critics have for months called on him to resign from his role as secretary of state while he’s running for governor, and Abrams has blasted what she calls his “pattern of misconduct” as the state’s top elections official.
The audio quickly played a starring role in their effort. Abrams’ campaign on Wednesday sent a fundraising appeal criticizing Kemp for being “worried that too many Georgians are voting.”
“That's not just backwards,” it read. “It’s extremely dangerous.”
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The two candidates had distinct responses to the spate of pipe bombs targeting people who criticize President Donald Trump.
Republican Brian Kemp praised law enforcement officials committed to finding the people behind the attacks, which involved deadly devices stashed in manila envelopes that were mailed to several top Democrats, prominent liberal figures and the New York office of CNN.
“It’s outrageous,” he said. “We can have political discourse, but violence is outrageous.”
His rival, Democrat Stacey Abrams, told reporters after a Columbus campaign stop it should be labeled an “assassination attempts against leaders of the country.”
“That is not only a tragedy, but it’s something that should terrify us all about where our body politic is,” she said. “That’s why I spend so much time talking about my willingness to work across the aisle. I may disagree with my opponent on policy, but I’d never call into question his humanity.”
Abrams said she’s “deeply disturbed by the national rhetoric creating space for this,” without singling any politician out.
“I want to be seen as somebody who can bring people together,” she added. “We can disagree sometimes, but we do not have to turn every disagreement into a battle.”
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Our inbox lit up today with a blaring headline from the Democratic Party of Georgia: "Brian Kemp's Alma Mater Endorsed Stacey Abrams."
Not exactly.
The party was touting an editorial by The Red & Black – the fiercely independent student newspaper at the University of Georgia – endorsing Abrams instead of Athens native Brian Kemp.
The school itself, of course, is not picking sides.
Kemp, a die-hard Georgia fan, can boast the endorsement of another major hometown publication: The Athens Banner-Herald.
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