Brian Kemp

Federal efforts to secure state voting systems

As evidence mounted that Russian hackers were attempting to disrupt the 2016 elections, President Obama directed his Department of Homeland Security secretary Jeh Johnson to work with states to secure their voting systems as "critical infrastructure." Kemp was the only state election official who declined the help.^[2] In a 2017 interview, Kemp denounced the effort as an assault on state rights, stating, "I think it was a politically calculated move by the previous administration," adding "I don’t necessarily believe" Russia had attempted to disrupt the elections.^[14][15] In August 2016, amid Russian attempts to disrupt the 2016 elections, Kemp said that an intrusion by Russian hackers into voting systems was "not probable at all, the way our systems are set up" and accused federal officials of exaggerating the threat of Russian interference.^[16] Georgia is only one of fourteen states which uses electronic voting machines that do not produce a paper record, which election integrity experts say leaves the elections vulnerable to tampering and technical problems.^[17] The 2018 indictment against Russian hackers (as part of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe into 2016 interference) said that the Russian hackers targeted county websites in Georgia.^[2]

In December 2016, Kemp accused DHS of attempting to hack his office's computer network, including the voter registration database, implying that it was retribution for his previous refusal to work with DHS. A DHS inspector general investigation found there was no hacking, but rather it was "the result of normal and automatic computer message exchanges generated by the Microsoft applications involved."^[18][17]

Exposure of personal voter data

In October 2015, the Georgia Secretary of State's office, under Kemp's leadership, erroneously distributed personal data (including Social Security numbers and dates of birth) of 6.2 million registered Georgia voters. This data breach occurred when the office sent out a CD with this information to 12 organizations that purchase monthly voter lists from the office. The office was not aware of the breach until the following month and did not publicly acknowledge the mishap until the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported the class action lawsuit against the office as a result of the data breach.^[1] Within a month of data breach becoming publicly known, it had cost taxpayers $1.2 million in credit monitoring services for those whose data had been compromised and $395,000 for an audit into Kemp's handling of the unauthorized data disclosure.^[19]

Voting rights controversies

Between 2012 and 2018, Kemp's office cancelled over 1.4 million voter registrations, with nearly 700,000 cancellations in 2017 alone.^[20] By early October 2018, more than 53,000 voter registration applications were on hold by Kemp's office, with nearly 70% of the voter registrations belonging to blacks.^[20]

Kemp has frequently been accused of voter suppression.^[21][22] In August 2018, Emory University professor Carol Anderson criticized Kemp as an "enemy of democracy" and "an expert in voter suppression" for his actions as Secretary of State, writing that Kemp had kept 35,000 people off voter rolls, many of them from minority groups.^[23] His accused tactics included kicking people off voter rolls for an errant hyphen or if "a stray letter or a typographical error on someone’s voter registration card didn’t match the records of the state’s driver’s license bureau or the Social Security office."^[23] African-Americans counted for 66% of the rejected voters.^[24] On a recording made by a progressive group he can be heard saying "Democrats are working hard, registering all these minority voters that are out there and others that are sitting on the sidelines."^[23] Kemp denies that he engages in voter suppression.^[20]

Primary campaign

In March 2017, Kemp announced his candidacy in the 2018 Georgia gubernatorial election.^[25] In a field of six candidates, Kemp and Lieutenant Governor Casey Cagle came in the two top places in a six-way Republican primary in May 2018, advancing to a runoff election.^[26]

During the run-off election, Cagle sought to portray Kemp as an incompetent Secretary of State, whereas Kemp sought to portray Cagle as scandal-prone and corrupt.^[27] During the primary and primary runoff campaigns, Kemp ran sharply to Cagle's right, benefiting from provocative campaign advertising (with a tag line "Yep, I just said that"), as well as by a endorsement from President Donald Trump late in the campaign, which Trump made at the request of Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue.^[28] In the runoff election, Cagle was endorsed by the GeorgiaCarry.org and the Family Research Council as well as by Republican candidates who were eliminated in the primary, Michael Williams, Clay Tippins, and Hunter Hill.^[29] Pursue's support for Kemp contrasted with Governor Nathan Deal's endorsement of Cagle.^[28]

General election campaign

In the general election, Kemp is running against Democratic nominee Stacey Abrams, the minority leader of the Georgia House of Representatives in the general election. During the gubernatorial campaign, Kemp has embraced Trump-like policies and themes.^[29][30][31] During the campaign, Kemp is running on a policy of imposing a state spending cap,^[32] opposing Medicaid expansion,^[33] and implementing the "strictest" abortion laws in the country.^[34] Kemp favors repealing the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), describing it as "an absolute disaster," and supports litigation seeking to eliminate the law's protections for persons with pre-existing condition.^[35]

Kemp provoked controversy with a television campaign ad in which he held a shotgun in the direction of a young man playing someone interested in dating one of Kemp’s daughters. This attracted criticism from the National Law Enforcement Partnership to Prevent Gun Violence, which said that the ad "delivers a message perpetuating domestic violence and misogyny while modeling egregiously unsafe behavior," and prompted criticism that the ad depicted irresponsible handling of guns.^[36][37] Kemp's supporters, by contrast, viewed the campaign ad as a "lighthearted portrayal of a protective, gun-wielding Southern father vetting a potential suitor" and Kemp dismissed the criticism, telling critics to "Get over it."^[36]

During the 2018 campaign, a number of Georgia-based organizations, such as the Georgia NAACP and Georgia Common Cause, called upon Kemp to resign as Secretary of State while running for governor, thus ensuring that he would not be overseeing his own election. Kemp has declined to do so.^[38]