Stacey Abrams Refuses To Concede Georgia's Governor Race
Stacey Abrams opponent, Republican Brian Kemp, maintains a narrow lead over her.
Stacey Abrams refuses to concede Georgia's governor race to Republican Brian Kemp as the final votes are being counted.
Abrams, who would be the nation's first black female governor, addressed her supporters early Wednesday morning, telling them: "I'm here tonight to tell you votes remain to be counted. There's voices that are waiting to be heard."
CNN received a statement from Abrams' campaign saying they're holding off on conceding to see if a runoff — another election or race — is possible. A runoff will be required if neither Abrams or Brian Kemp gets the majority-vote margin they need to win the race outright.
The statement CNN received from Abrams' campaign cited multiple instances that could result in a runoff including:
"...three of the state's largest counties that 'have reported only a portion of the votes that were submitted by early mail' and four other large counties that 'have reported exactly 0 votes by mail,' according to the campaign. Together, it said, the seven counties 'are expected to return a minimum of 77,000 ballots.'"
"These counties also represent heavily-Democratic leaning constituencies, and the majority of those votes are anticipated to be for Stacey Abrams," the statement continued.
As the Atlanta Journal-Constitution notes, Kemp has a slim lead over Abrams. A Google search of the election results for the two shows Kemp at 50.5% and Abrams at 48.6%. The results were updated at 9:18am EST.
Source: CNN