Casey Cagle learned that the hard way. Earlier this year, the lieutenant governor appeared to have the GOP nomination for governor in the bag. But with the help of a series of controversial ads — and an embarrassing covert recording of Cagle - the 54-year-old secured President Donald Trump's endorsement and rode the latest anti-establishment wave to an upset win. GOP candidate for governor Brian Kemp takes questions from reporters in front of the Kemp campaign bus, after speaking to supporters in Perry. Kemp’s campaign style hasn’t relied on celebrity appearances but plays up his rural roots. Credit: Ryon Horne, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Credit: Ryon Horne, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Now Kemp, a married father of three daughters, meets Democrat Stacey Abrams in the Nov. 6 contest to succeed two-term Gov. Nathan Deal. Polls have shown that despite Georgia’s strongly conservative leanings, the race is tight. “We had to try to survive” On a recent bus tour around the state, Kemp focused on topics like combating gang violence, boosting teacher pay and rural hospital tax credits, and increasing school safety. Long gone are two stars of the primary season ads: Kemp's gun collection and "Jake," the fictitious suitor of one of Kemp's daughters, who notes with a gulp that he has a "healthy respect for the Second Amendment." Those ads — which showed Kemp brandishing a shotgun and bragging of using his pickup truck to round up "criminal illegals" — won Kemp scores of critics. But Trump supporters loved his embrace of the politically incorrect. "Yep, I just said that," he says with a lopsided grin. During his recent stump speech -- delivered from an actual stump -- at Appalachian Gun, Pawn & Range in Jasper, Kemp told supporters “to get some gas in that chain saw, get your ax and mattock out and keep choppin’ wood.” At a stop in Ellijay, the secretary of state mentioned firearms only after prompting from the crowd. “I started with a pickup truck, a shovel and a toolbox,” he said, laying out his small business bona fides. “Your gun, too!” a supporter interjected. “I had a gun in there, as well as a chain saw,” Kemp said to applause. Related: ELECTION 2018: Inside the Georgia governor's race Related: ABRAMS & KEMP ON: Spending | Education | Transportation | Social issues In fact, he had to save up a while for the chain saw during the early days of his construction career, he said in an interview after one of his tour stops. “I built two spec houses and then I started another one, and I couldn’t sell any of them,” he said. “I almost didn’t make it through all of that. Marty and I were living in a house in a little subdivision. So I finally told her one day, look, if we’re gonna go broke we might as well change our luck, move in one of the spec houses and see if maybe that’ll help it sell.” The strategy worked, but it meant moving again after less than a month. Then again. And again. “We were trying to sell everything we had to try to survive,” Kemp said. Finally, they put down some roots. Wheels, actually. “I bought a demo double wide mobile home and set it up and told her, ‘We’ll just live here a year to see how we like it,’” Kemp said. “Three years later we were still there.” When their first child, Jarrett, now 19, was on the way, Marty Kemp told her husband: “You better start building me a house.’” “I know first-hand how hard it is to start a business,” he said. “Those first few years are rough. I was working, literally, seven days a week to pay the bank and pay my bills and survive.” >> Read more trending news Kemp has done well since those early days. He's amassed a net worth of more than $5 million, mostly through real estate investments, records show. But as his wealth has soared, some of his investments have gone sour. He is embroiled in a lawsuit over a loan he personally guaranteed for a now-struggling agricultural business. Legal papers show he promised to cover about $10 million in loans for Hart AgStrong. Kemp is being sued by a Toccoa businessman who says he invested in the Bowersville-based canola processor at Kemp’s urging and was never paid back the $500,000 he’s owed. Kemp’s campaign has downplayed the significance of the suit, filed against him saying he was just one of several investors in the company. “He’s a rock” A fourth-generation University of Georgia graduate, Kemp would probably bleed red and black if you stuck him with a hatpin. Business and farming runs through his family tree more so than politics, with some notable exceptions. His grandfather, the late Julian H. Cox Sr., and father-in-law, the late Bob Argo, were Georgia legislators. His forebears include Revolutionary War Major John Habersham, a member of the board of trustees that established UGA, and Joseph Habersham (for whom Habersham County is named), who was Savannah’s mayor in the 1790s and George Washington’s appointed postmaster general. People who have known him the longest have two things in common. They pronounce his name with one syllable - Brine - and repeatedly use the word “solid.” “There’s no other friend I’ve ever had who’s as solid as Brian,” said Daniel Dooley, son of University of Georgia coaching legend Vince Dooley and brother of Derek Dooley, offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at the University of Missouri. “Brian would go on vacations with us. He was like the other brother.” Dooley was famous for getting the boys up and out at the crack of dark for fishing trips, then monitoring their progress until he deemed their haul sufficient. “When you fish with Dad, he can take anything that’s supposed to be fun and turn it into a job,” the younger Dooley mused. Kemp didn’t mind the rigor. He and Daniel Dooley played football together for the acclaimed late Coach Billy Henderson at Clarke Central High School and lived together their final year at UGA, where Kemp majored in agriculture.<doc-sep>The poll also points to the limits of President Donald Trump's popularity in the state. Trump won Georgia by 5 percentage points in 2016 and his surprise endorsement in July helped fuel Kemp's runaway runoff victory, but his approval ratings are underwater in Georgia. About 42 percent of likely Georgia voters approve of his performance in the White House, compared with 51 percent who disapprove. Roughly 7 percent didn't know or refused to answer the survey, which was the second AJC poll this year to show Trump's approval ratings below 50 percent in Georgia. The findings illustrated the deep partisan divide over Trump, who remains solidly popular among his party’s base, garnering an 85 percent approval rating from Georgia Republicans. But just one-quarter of independents and only 2 percent of Democrats gave him high marks. Although Kemp is still relying on the White House's help — Vice President Mike Pence will host a fundraiser for him next week — he has tried to moderate his image for a broader electorate. These days, he's more likely to mention Deal on the campaign trail than Trump. The poll offers a reason for that shift. About 63 percent of voters approve of Deal’s performance, while only 1 in 5 disapprove. The high marks came from across the political spectrum, with nearly half of Democrats and 64 percent of independents giving the governor favorable reviews. The poll of 1,020 likely voters was conducted Aug. 26 to Sept. 4 by the University of Georgia’s School of Public and International Affairs. The margin of error is 3.1 percentage points. ‘Right direction’ The findings offer clues about how Abrams and Kemp will lean into the next two months of campaigning. After bruising primaries that led to landslide victories, both candidates have effectively locked down their bases, with roughly 9 in 10 Democrats backing Abrams and a similar proportion of Republicans behind Kemp. The bigger question is how each candidate on opposite ends of many of Georgia's biggest political divides, from tricky social issues to wonky tax policy, woos the relatively small number of undecided voters. About 14 percent of independent voters — traditionally Georgia's biggest ideological bloc — aren't yet committed to a candidate. And many of them consider themselves moderates or conservatives. Sandra Atkinson, who owns an antique shop in Lawrenceville, was one of those undecided voters until recently. She said she's leaning toward Kemp because of his opposition to the expansion of Medicaid, a policy that Abrams unequivocally supports. “That’s the main reason I’m against her,” she said, adding: “That’s my only thing that I see with Abrams that I don’t agree with.” Abrams' campaign has increasingly relied on her economic platform to broaden her appeal, and interviews with several survey respondents echoed her policies. Tony Daniels, a sales representative in Valdosta, said he's backing Abrams because "she speaks for the downtrodden." “We need more jobs — high-paying jobs — and entrepreneurial programs in Georgia,” he said. “The only way you lift people out of poverty is to bring better jobs to the state. We need government to uplift the small businessman, and she’ll do that.” Despite spending millions of dollars on TV ads in the most expensive race for governor in state history, each candidate must work to boost his or her likability. About one-quarter of voters have an unfavorable opinion of Abrams and nearly one-third holds that view of Kemp. And the poll serves as a sharp reminder why both candidates are emphasizing pocketbook issues such as jobs and health care — rather than divisive cultural debates — in the closing stretch of the race. About one-quarter of respondents labeled the economy the most important factor in their decisions, followed by health care and the quality of public schools. The only other of the eight factors to crack double digits was immigration, while other issues such as “religious liberty” and gun laws ranked lower. The partisan breakdown showed a sharper split. The top issue among Republicans was also the economy followed by immigration. Democrats said their most important factor was health care, while independents pointed to public school education. Still, the poll shows most voters feel good about the state. Nearly three-quarters of voters are very or somewhat satisfied with the way things are going in Georgia, including about 90 percent of Republicans and a majority of Democrats. Almost two-thirds of the poll respondents said the state’s economy was good or excellent; only 6.5 percent described it as poor. “Georgia is headed in the right direction,” said Jim Smiley, a Tucker retiree who was among those who said they were peachy about the state’s future. “Our economy is growing, and I’m happy with the improvement of our schools. We’re going to see more growth headed this way.” AJC / Channel 2 Action News poll The poll of 1,020 likely voters was conducted Aug. 26 to Sept. 4 by the University of Georgia’s School of Public and International Affairs. The margin of error is 3.1 percentage points. If the election for governor were being held today, for whom would you vote? Brian Kemp, the Republican: 45.3 percent Stacy Abrams, the Democrat: 44.9 percent Ted Metz, the Libertarian: 2.1 percent Undecided / don’t know: 7.6 percent Is your opinion of Brian Kemp favorable, unfavorable, or do you have no opinion? Favorable: 40.0 percent Unfavorable: 32.0 percent No opinion: 26.3 percent Don’t know / refused to answer: 1.7 percent Is your opinion of Stacey Abrams favorable, unfavorable, or do you have no opinion? Favorable: 42.9 percent Unfavorable: 26.1 percent No opinion: 29.0 percent Don’t know / refused to answer: 2.1 percent Do you approve or disapprove of the way Donald Trump is handling his job as president? Approve: 42.2 percent Disapprove: 51.1 percent Don’t know / refused to answer: 6.7 percent Do you approve or disapprove of the way Nathan Deal is handling his job as governor? Approve: 63.4 percent Disapprove: 21.3 percent Don’t know / refused to answer: 15.3 percent In general, how satisfied are you with the way things are going in Georgia today? Very satisfied: 14.7 percent Somewhat satisfied: 57.3 percent Somewhat dissatisfied: 20.0 percent<doc-sep>Georgia Secretary of State and GOP gubernatorial candidate Brian Kemp is being sued for putting the voter registration status of tens of thousands of predominately African-American voters "on hold" for name discrepancies. He is in a close race for governor against Stacey Abrams, who would be the United States' first black, female governor if elected. Critics have accused Kemp of using his office to conduct racially motivated voter suppression, but he says the holds are necessary to ensure the integrity of Georgia elections. Brian Kemp, Georgia's Secretary of State and the GOP candidate for Governor, is being sued in federal court by civil rights groups over the voter registration status of thousands of African-American Georgia voters "on hold" just a month before his election against Democrat Stacey Abrams, who if elected would be America's first black, female governor. Georgia is one of several states that uses an "exact match" voter verification system to confirm the identity of voters, requiring the name and spelling someone uses to register to vote to match the information on their driver's license and/or Social Security card. An error as minor as a one-letter spelling discrepancy or dropped hyphen from a last name could mean a voter's registration application or status would be indefinitely stalled until they resolve the discrepancy with the relevant state or federal agency. Voters whose registrations have been put hold can still vote, however, if they bring an ID to the polls that "substantially matches" the name they used to register to vote, according to the ACLU of Georgia. An Associated Press analysis revealed that while Georgia's population is 32% African-American, according to the most recent Census data, a full 70% of the 53,000 voters whose registration status had been put on hold identified as such, leading critics to accuse Kemp of deliberately disenfranchising likely Abrams voters. Stacey Abrams won Georgia's Democratic gubernatorial primary in May. Jessica McGowan/Getty Images Kemp, the top elections official in Georgia, has also come under fire for cancelling 1.4 million Georgia voter registrations since he took office in 2012. "We've shown that this process disproportionately prevents minority applicants from getting on the voter registration rolls," Julie Houk, special counsel for the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, said of exact matching registration in an interview with the Associated Press. Kemp says the cancelled and stalled registrations are not intentionally suppressive, but necessary to ensure that noncitizens don't vote in Georgia elections. Research shows voter impersonation is practically nonexistent across recent American electoral history. Kemp has also blamed Abrams herself, and the voter turnout nonprofit she founded, for the racial disparities in those affected by the registration freezes, accusing Abrams' New Georgia Project of submitting voter registration forms with missing information or illegible names of voters. "As he has done for years, Brian Kemp is maliciously wielding the power of his office to suppress the vote for political gain and silence the voices of thousands of eligible voters — the majority of them people of color," Abrams spokeswoman Abigail Collazo told CNN.<doc-sep>As Georgia's Democratic candidate for governor, Stacey Abrams, called for voters in her state to fight Republican efforts at voter suppression by showing up at polls in large numbers in next month's election, a national grassroots group reported Secretary of State Brian Kemp—also the GOP's gubernatorial candidate—to the Justice Department late Wednesday night for blatantly violating the Voting Rights Act in order to swing the upcoming election in his own favor. The Democratic Coalition is among those that have expressed outrage over a massive voter purge in the state which has disproportionately affected black voters, just before residents prepare to choose between Abrams—who would be the country's first black female governor—and Kemp himself in the November 6 election. BREAKING: @TheDemCoalition just reported Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp to the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division for Voting Rights Act violations. Kemp’s efforts to suppress Georgia voters in general, especially for his own benefit, won’t be tolerated. Period. — Scott Dworkin (@funder) October 11, 2018 So the right wing Secretary of State running for Governor can unilaterally terminate the voting rights of tens of thousands of people solely because he presumes they’ll vote against him. Pinochet, Franco, Marcos, Mussolini would be impressed https://t.co/SfCDlSLh4z — Charles Idelson (@cidelson) October 11, 2018 Definition of a rigged system is the GOP candidate for Gov in Georgia holding the keys to over 50,000 pending voter registrations -- almost all black or brown people -- in a race that is a toss up. Stop Brian Kemp! #shame #StaceyAbrams https://t.co/KQlRsogona — ilyse hogue (@ilyseh) October 10, 2018 Sure helps your campaign if you can take 53k voters who probably won't vote for you off the rolls >>> https://t.co/GtbhafyaR1 via @TPM — Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) October 10, 2018 Esquire political columnist Charles P. Pierce called the Abrams-Kemp race "ground zero in the battle American democracy," and tweeted that outside observers should be present on Election Day in Georgia to ensure the vote is legitimate—as they would in fledgling democracies overseas. I am not kidding. We need UN election observers in Georgia...the state, not the country. — Charles P. Pierce (@CharlesPPierce) October 10, 2018 SCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT Never Miss a Beat. Get our best delivered to your inbox. An analysis by the Associated Press estimates that Kemp, whose office oversees the state's elections and voter registration, has purged 53,000 registrants from the rolls by exploiting a 2013 "exact match" rule that states voters' application forms must exactly match Georgia's existing state records for every resident. Seventy percent of those registrations now listed as "pending" as a result of the law, the AP found, belong to African-Americans. On MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Thursday, Abrams said she was "deeply worried" that many Georgia voters "will be disenfranchised in this election"—by the actions that Kemp has taken. "I want people to understand that voter suppression has two effects," Abrams said. "One is to stop people from voting, but the other is to scare people out of voting and I do not want them to have the effect on either side." The voter purge is just Kemp's latest attempt to disenfranchise voters in Georgia, Abrams added, noting that she led a lawsuit against him four years ago over the "exact match" law, forcing his to reinstate 33,000 canceled voter registrations. In August, as Common Dreams reported, the Randolph County Board of Elections rejected the state's proposal to close more than three-quarters of the majority-black county's polling places. Feels like deja vu: 4 years ago, Kemp tried to keep 40k new voters off the rolls. It took a few years, but we beat him. A few months ago, he tried to close polling places, but we beat him there too. Now he’s at it again, and we’ll beat him - again. 1/2 https://t.co/CDNcPantNE — Stacey Abrams (@staceyabrams) October 11, 2018 Noting that she plans to continue her earlier legal battle against Kemp's suppression efforts, Abrams urged Georgians to go to the polls in huge numbers as a way to counteract the impact of those whose names have been purged. "We have enough registered voters in Georgia to win this election," Abrams said. "We've added new voter registrants, in fact, 250,000 new registrants are on the rolls being processed right now. I want them to recognize that their voices can be the amplification of those who have been told they can't vote."<doc-sep>
OPINION: Republican nominee Brian Kemp is straight up cheating to win the Georgia’s gubernatorial race Secretary of State Brian Kemp addresses the audience and declares victory during an election watch party on July 24, 2018 in Athens, Georgia. Kemp defeated opponent Casey Cagle in a runoff election for the Republican nomination for the Georgia Governor’s race. (Photo by Jessica McGowan/Getty Images) A few weeks ago, we witnessed one of the most contentious U.S. Women’s Open ever, when a chair umpire unfairly admonished arguably the world’s greatest athlete, Serena Williams, for what he saw as her attempt to cheat. She scoffed in her reply saying, “I don’t cheat. I’d rather lose than cheat.” If only our current political environment had the same gumption and clarity of conviction as Serena. When it comes to politics cheating is the new path forward for Republicans. And sadly, the people who are supposed to provide the checks and balances on these actions (such as judges) have become just as shady and politically motivated as the people working tirelessly to suppress the vote. In politics, much like in sports, it is the best candidate who is supposed to win. The one who puts in the most effort, knocks on the most doors and convinces the most people that they have the policies, drive and vision to reshape the lives of their constituents for the better. READ MORE: Manifesto: TheGrio presents a list of demands to hold candidates accountable before and after the midterm elections Usually the best candidate wins, but what happens when one person has an unfair advantage and changes the rules of the game to benefit their agency? There is no better case study for this example of the new Jim Crow than the hotly contested governor’s race in Georgia between Republican Secretary of State Brian Kemp and his Democratic competitor Stacey Abrams, who could potentially be the first Black woman governor in the country. In the Jim Crow South there were countless underhanded tactics used to stop Black people from voting. These schemes ranged from domestic terrorism instituted by the Klu Klux Klan’s bombings, lynching, and other vicious assaults to literacy tests and marble counting at polling stations. When Jim Crow was outlawed following unwavering protests during the Civil Rights era, many believed that voting would forever be protected under the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and it was until 2013. That’s when one of the worst Supreme Court decisions in modern times occurred in a 5 to 4 vote. SCOTUS gutted the very provisions of the Voting Rights Act that required mostly southern states to seek federal approval before changing their election laws. According to the Brennan Center for Justice, since this decision there has been a rapid increase in voter purging. In Georgia, for example, 156 of the state’s 159 counties reported an increase in removal rates after the Voting Rights Act was changed. In 2016, advocates sued Georgia for making it harder for residents to register to vote and in 2017, the American Civil Liberties Union sued a Georgia county and the state Secretary of State for its purge practices. It’s no surprise then that Georgia’s Secretary of State Kemp, much like the white supremacists before him, has dusted off the good old KKK voter suppression playbook and is pulling out all the stops to ensure he wins on election day. As one of the state’s top election officials, Brian Kemp should have recused himself from having anything to do with the voting process while campaigning to be governor. Instead, he has continued his seemingly prejudiced path of destruction by stripping the rights of more than 1 million voters in Georgia since 2012. You can’t ignore the glaring issue of race when these tactics have mostly affected Black residents. How in the world can Kemp be a player in the game and also hold the title of top judge at the same time? Better yet, how is Abrams supposed to win playing by the rules when her opponent is clearly not? The answer is she’s not. READ MORE: OPINION: It’s time for Black women to stop caping a white feminist agenda What we know to be true is that Republicans don’t win the popular race for a reason. Their ideas are not popular. Instead of working to be the G.O.A.T like Serena, they are too busy conspiring ways to change the rules of the game. The reality is Democracy is a contact sport.