Activist groups in Georgia are calling on Republican gubernatorial candidate Brian Kemp to step down as secretary of state, a post that includes responsibility for overseeing the state’s elections.
Kemp, through his campaign spokesman, has said he will not give up the job that he has held since 2010, noting that other elected officials have not quit their elected posts while running for higher offices. He is running against Democratic nominee Stacey Abrams, a former state lawmaker who has clashed with Kemp in the past over her efforts to register voters.
The race will be one of the most closely watched of the midterms, a test of Trump’s political popularity and a chance for Abrams to make history as the nation’s first black female governor.
Two groups — the Georgia Alliance for Social Justice and Resist Trump Tuesdays — have planned a rally for Wednesday afternoon to call for Kemp to resign. Common Cause Georgia issued a statement this week urging him to leave his position. “It is ethically wrong for a politician to oversee the campaign he is a candidate in,” reads an online petition launched by the group.