As early voting kicked off in the Peach State on Monday, Republican Governor Brian Kemp squared off for a debate against his Democrat challenger Stacey Abrams — who lost the race to Kemp in 2018 and repeatedly refused to accept the outcome and claimed that her loss was not legitimate.
When asked about her prior election denial on Monday evening's debate stage, Abrams again tried to deny her denial. When asked whether she'd commit to accept the outcome of this November's election "regardless of what it shows" and whether she stood by her prior use of words like "rigged" to describe the 2018 election, she attempted to rewrite her own recent history.
"In 2018, I began my speech on November 16 acknowledging that Governor Kemp had won the election," Abrams said. "I then proceeded to lay out, in great detail, the challenges faced by voters under his leadership as secretary of state," she added, trying to pivot to an attack on her GOP opponent without answering the question of whether she regretted denying the outcome of her last run at the Governor's office and whether she'd accept the 2022 result.
"As governor I intend to stand up for the right to vote," Abrams added, claiming "I will always acknowledge the outcome of elections but I will never deny access to every voter," she said, seemingly twisting up her words. Abrams, however, has not "always" acknowledged the outcome of elections without also denying the legitimacy of the result.
Governor Brian Kemp responded by saying "Ms. Abrams is going to do a lot of attacking of my record tonight because she doesn't want to talk about her own record," which was clear in Abrams' answer.
"In 2018, in the governor's race, we had the largest African American turnout in the country," Kemp reminded. "She said that Senate Bill 202, our recent elections integrity act we passed two years ago, would be suppressive and 'Jim Crow 2.0,'" Kemp also highlighted before offering the proof that Georgia's election security measure hadn't lived down to the Democrats' absurd claims. "Just this past May in our primaries we again had record turnout — in the Republican primary and the Democratic primary," Kemp reminded. "In Georgia, it's easy to vote and hard to cheat."
If Abrams post 2018-rhetoric is any indication, she's not likely to take a loss next month any better. As a refresher, here are some of Abrams statements about what happened in her previous run against Kemp in 2018 and the outcome of that election:
"I have one very affirmative statement to make: We won."
"I didn't lose, I got the votes."
"I did win my election."
"We were robbed of an election."
"This is not a speech of concession because concession means to acknowledge an action is right, true, or proper — and I will not concede."
"It was not a free and fair election."
"If it looks like it's cheating, it probably is — If it looks like it's rigged, it probably is."
"I refuse to concede."
"We don't know what really happened."
"The election was not fair, the process was not fair."
"I do like to point out something that is true for me and for many in our state and that is: We won."
According to Abrams during Monday night's debate, she seems to believe she's still winning four years after she refused to accept her previous loss to Kemp. At one point, Abrams declared of her current campaign, "I do not believe that I'm behind," which is yet another dubious claim.
Now just three weeks out from the general election on November 8, the gubernatorial race in Georgia is rated "Lean Republican" by the Cook Political Report while the Real Clear Politics polling average shows Kemp with a five point lead over Abrams.