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Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio said Wednesday that should Democrat Stacey Abrams lose her tight race for Georgia governor, Republicans "stole it."
"If Stacey Abrams doesn’t win in Georgia, they stole it," Brown said, speaking at the National Action Network conference in Washington. "It's clear. It's clear. I say that publicly and it's clear."
Brown, who called on officials to count all ballots in Georgia and Florida, two states where high-profile contests remain unsettled, said the GOP "can't win elections" fairly because there are "way more of us than there are of them."
"They win elections by redistricting and reapportionment and voter suppression and all the ways they try to scare people, particularly people of color," Brown, who is considering a 2020 presidential bid, added.
Sherrod Brown lays out areas of focus for Dems
Nov. 12, 201806:47GOP gubernatorial candidate Brian Kemp, who did not resign from his job as Georgia's secretary of state until after Nov. 6, was accused during the campaign of trying to suppress the vote through his role overseeing elections, including his own. Kemp denied those accusations, saying he was simply following the law.
NBC News rates the contest between Abrams and Republican Brian Kemp too close to call more than a week after Election Day. Kemp holds a lead of 55,000 votes as of Wednesday.
Civil rights groups sued in October after an Associated Press investigation found that Kemp's office had placed 53,000 voter registration applicants in limbo, 70 percent of whom were African-American. Abrams, who is black, said it amounted to voter suppression. In early November, a federal judge sided with the civil rights groups and ordered Kemp to allow more than 3,000 people whose voter registrations were put on hold over proof-of-citizenship issues access to a ballot.
Days before Georgians went to the polls, Kemp announced his office was investigating the state's Democratic Party over an attempted hack of the voter registration system — but did not provide any evidence to back up his 11th-hour claims.
After the election and under pressure from Democrats, Kemp resigned as secretary of state and removed himself from any role in overseeing the vote count, which is ongoing.
Abrams hopes to narrow Kemp's lead to force a mandatory recount or a runoff — the higher of the two hurdles. State law requires a candidate to have more than 50 percent of the vote in order to win outright, and Kemp currently has 50.2 percent of the overall vote.
Kemp declared victory immediately following last week's election, but Abrams has not conceded the race.
On Wednesday, Kemp's campaign said it was Abrams and her "radical backers" who were conspiring to "steal" the governor's race — and again called on Abrams to concede.
"Since Election night, hardworking Georgians have watched how the 'new' Democratic Party behaves," Cody Hall, Kemp's press secretary, said, adding, "Stacey Abrams and her radical backers will stop at nothing to undermine democracy and attempt to steal this election to be Georgia's next governor."
"After all of the theatrics, the math remains the same," Hall continued. "Abrams lost and Brian Kemp won. This election is over. Stacey Abrams needs to concede. It’s time to move past the campaign and work towards a safer, stronger Georgia."
In addition to Kemp, Republicans like Florida GOP Senate candidate Rick Scott and President Donald Trump, have accused Democrats of trying to "steal" close races in Florida and Arizona, lobbing unsupported claims of voter fraud.
In Florida, a fraught recount effort is ongoing in both Scott's contest, in which he leads incumbent Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson, and the contentious race for governor that saw Democrat Andrew Gillum revise his election night concession speech to Republican candidate Ron DeSantis as the margin narrowed.
Democratic Rep. Kyrsten Sinema ultimately edged out Republican Rep. Martha McSally to become the apparent winner in the Arizona Senate race, according to NBC News.
