After a highly polarizing gubernatorial race marred by shady political tactics, Brian Kemp has resigned from his position as Georgia’s Secretary-of-State. His resignation comes after reports that Kemp was misusing his position to manipulate the outcome of the governor’s race. Claims of voter suppression were severe and Stacy Abrams put pressure on him and his campaign to resign from his position. As the gubernatorial race remains too close to call, things are starting to get interesting.
NBC reports that Kemp sent his resignation in at 11:59 AM this morning. Stepping down means that he won’t be able to certify the final vote count and his influence on the election has loosened. Kemp commanded an early lead on Abrams, a Spelman College alumnae, in Tuesday’s election. However, as the night came to a close, Abrams started to pull closer to Kemp and the difference between votes lessened to a few percentage points. Kemp declared victory in the race on Wednesday but Abrams has yet to concede.
Kemp and his campaign is facing litigation for his role as Secretary-of-State in this election. Georgia voters filed a lawsuit on Tuesday accusing Kemp of using “he official powers of his office to interfere in the election to benefit himself and his political party and disadvantage his opponents.” Kemp’s campaign has denied the allegations and Kemp himself hasn’t spoken to the media at large about the claims of voter suppression and the accusations of how he’s using his position. Brian Kemp’s most recent interview was on November 5th with Laura Ingram on Fox News.
Democrats and voter groups have repeatedly called for the resignation of Kemp in the weeks leading up to the election. Just today, the Georgia Democrat tweeted:
.@BrianKempGA‘s self-coronation, using taxpayer resources, is a legally meaningless political stunt. Zero out of 159 counties have certified votes. Zero votes are officially reported until next week, and tens of thousands of votes have not been counted. #CantTrustKemp #gapol
— Georgia Democrat (@GeorgiaDemocrat) November 8, 2018
Former President and Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter also urged Kemp to resign as Secretary of State.The Associated Press obtained a copy of the letter that Cater wrote to Kemp that stated,
“In order to foster voter confidence in the upcoming election, which will be especially important if the race ends up very close, I urge you to step aside and hand over to a neutral authority the responsibility of overseeing the governor’s election.”
As we move forward in this race, things are starting to get more interesting. Abrams and Kemp are now on equal footing and a run-off might spell danger for Brian Kemp.
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