Adviser: Kemp declaring victory in Georgia
Published 4:45 pm Wednesday, November 7, 2018
The Associated Press
A campaign adviser for Republican Brian Kemp adviser says the candidate is declaring victory in Georgia governor’s race.
Campaign official Ryan Mahoney made the announcement during a Wednesday afternoon conference call with reporters. Kemp was not on the call.
Mahoney says, “We are declaring victory.”
A second campaign official, Austin Chambers, said on the call, “The message here is pretty simple: This election is over, and the results are clear”
Kemp has just more than 50 percent of Tuesday’s vote, which would give him the majority threshold needed to secure a victory. The Associated Press has not called the race.
Democratic opponent Stacey Abrams has not conceded the race, and her campaign believes there are enough uncounted ballots to force Kemp into a runoff.
Current vote totals from the Secretary of State’s office (as of 5:30 p.m. Wednesday) shows Kemp with 1,972,951 votes to 1,909,728, or 50.33 percent to 48.72 percent. Third party candidate Ted Metz has 37,081 vote or 0.95 percent of the vote.