Kemp wins in Georgia, but Abrams plans to fight on

Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams acknowledged Friday that Republican Brian Kemp would become the state’s next governor, but she also did not concede she lost the race. A review of rejected provisional ballots was due at 5 p.m. Friday, and Abrams spoke at a news conference shortly after, saying she planned to file a major federal lawsuit in the coming days for “gross mismanagement” of the election. “Concession means to acknowledge an action is right, true or proper. As a woman of conscience and faith I cannot concede that,” she said. She also promised to pray for Kemp’s success as governor.

Abrams has argued since before the election that, as Georgia’s secretary of state, Kemp implemented policies that suppressed voters. Two days after the election, Kemp resigned the position so as not to oversee the counting of votes in the extremely tight contest. The Georgia secretary of state’s office has not certified the election outcome, but unofficial results show Kemp with 50.2 percent of the more than 3.9 million votes cast, beyond the reach of a recount. Kemp said in a statement Friday that the Georgia gubernatorial election was over and urged the state to look forward: “We can no longer dwell on the divisive politics of the past but must focus on Georgia’s bright and promising future.”