Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe claimed that Stacey Abrams should be the governor of Georgia, accusing Brian Kemp (who ran for governor while also serving as secretary of state) of having “disenfranchised” more than 1 million Georgia voters in the state’s 2018 gubernatorial election.
“She would be the governor of Georgia today had the governor of Georgia not disenfranchised 1.4 million Georgia voters before the election,” McAuliffe said as he introduced Abrams at a campaign event on Sunday. “That’s what happened to Stacey Abrams. They took the votes away.”
Last week, McAuliffe nodded along as Abrams repeated what some have described as her “Big Lie” about the 2018 election.
MCAULIFFE NODS ALONG AS STACEY ABRAMS TELLS ‘BIG LIE’ THAT GEORGIA RACE WAS STOLEN FROM HER
On the night of the election in 2018, Abrams conceded that “former Secretary of State Brian Kemp will be certified as the victor in the 2018 gubernatorial election.” But she claimed that Kemp had pinned “his hopes for election on suppression of the people’s democratic right to vote.” She has repeatedly accused Kemp of abusing his position as secretary of state to suppress the vote.
Yet fact-checkers with PolitiFact and USA Today found “no proof” and “little empirical evidence” that Kemp stole the election.
KAMALA HARRIS VIDEO URGING CHURCHGOERS TO VOTE FOR MCAULIFFE MAY BE ILLEGAL
While Kemp did clean up the voter rolls before the election (removing 1.4 million active voters from the rolls) and putting holds on some voters, University of Georgia professor Charles Bullock told USA Today that the holds would not have stopped Georgians from voting.
“All the person had to do is show up with their photo ID, which everyone has to have, and they would’ve been allowed to vote,” Bullock explained.
Abrams’ personal website appears to describe her as “governor.”
Screenshot from Stacey Abrams personal website
(Stacey Abrams)
Some commentators have compared Abrams’ claim about voter suppression and the 2018 governor race to the Democrats’ condemnations of former President Donald Trump’s claims about fraud in the 2020 election, which Democrats refer to as “The Big Lie.”
“Before Trump’s Big Lie, there was the Stacey Abrams Big Lie,” Eric Cunningham, editor-in-chief of Elections Daily, wrote on Twitter. “It has so thoroughly permeated the Democratic Party that it’s virtually impossible to find National Democrats that don’t think the 2018 race was stolen from her.”
In his remarks on Sunday, McAuliffe also praised Abrams for her advocacy after the 2018 election, saying that Georgia would not have voted for Joe Biden in 2020, nor would it have elected Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock to the U.S. Senate in 2021, where it not for Abrams.
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Election officials in Fairfax County, Virginia, currently face a lawsuit accusing them of violating election law during the ongoing gubernatorial election. Lawyers have also suggested that churches may have broken the law by showing videos of Vice President Kamala Harris urging churchgoers to vote for McAuliffe.
Georgia Governor Brian Kemp did not immediately respond to Fox News’ request for comment.
(Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
((Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
