Stacey Abrams acknowledges Brian Kemp will win Georgia gubernatorial race

Stacey Abrams, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate for governor in Georgia, addressed supporters after she earlier mulled bringing a legal challenge that could allow a judge to decide whether to force a second round of voting in the closely contested race. She said that while she was not conceding, she would no longer pursue victory in the race.

“This speech is not a concession, because concession means to acknowledge an action is right, true, or proper,” Abrams said, but she added that the “law offers no possible remedy.” “I don’t want to hold public office if I need to scheme my way into the post,” Abrams added, on why she would not bring forward a legal challenge.

“Georgia still has a decision to make about who we will be in the next election,” she said. She continued that while many of her critics would criticize her for recapping the wrongs she believed were done during the election, Abrams said, “stoicism is a luxury, and silence is a weapon.”

“I will not concede because the erosion of democracy is not right,” she said.

Georgia law dictates a race must go to a runoff if neither candidate gets over 50 percent. Republican Brian Kemp currently leads with 50.2 percent. Abrams would be challenging the election results under an election law provision which calls for another vote if there is “misconduct, fraud or irregularities” which would create doubts about the result.

Abrams has called Kemp, the former Georgia secretary of state, the “architect of voter suppression” in the state. During Kemp’s tenure, 1.5 million voters were purged from the rolls.

“Make no mistake, the former secretary of state was deliberate and intentional in his actions,” Abrams said in her speech.