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Abrams ends fight for Georgia governor with harsh words for her rival

ATLANTA — Stacey Abrams ended her Democratic bid to become governor of Georgia on Friday, acknowledging that she did not have the votes to beat her Republican rival, Brian Kemp, but sounding a defiant note by declaring that an “erosion of our democracy” had kept many of her backers from the polls.

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The two candidates ran as unabashed liberals and their strong showings in two pivotal states where Democrats have lately struggled is likely to keep the debate going within the Democratic Party over the best strategy for making gains in 2020.

Abrams, 44, represented the diverse future of the state and its capital, Atlanta. Kemp, 55, who bragged he had a pickup truck big enough to “round up criminal illegals,” played to the state’s rural voters and linked himself with President Donald Trump. In the end, it was enough to allow the Republican Party to maintain its grip on power in Georgia, which has not elected a Democrat as governor since 1998.

Even before Abrams ended her campaign, Kemp had been preparing to take control. He declared victory two days after the election and appointed a chief of staff for his transition. He also resigned as secretary of state, ending his oversight of the election in which he was a candidate.

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Abrams, while acknowledging Friday that she could not win, did not concede either.

“More than 200 years into Georgia’s democratic experiment, the state failed its voters,” Abrams said, her voice alternating among anguish, contempt, frustration and outrage as she argued that “eight years of systemic disenfranchisement, disinvestment and incompetence had its desired effect on the electoral process in Georgia.”

Still, it was the closest race for governor in Georgia since 1966. Abrams came within 18,000 votes of forcing a runoff, and about 55,000 votes of winning outright, in an election that drew almost 4 million ballots.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

Alan Blinder and Richard Fausset © 2018 The New York Times

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