Georgia GOP Candidate Got 3 Percent of Vote But Still Won’t Concede After a Week

It’s been a week since incumbent Gov. Brian Kemp won the Republican gubernatorial primary in Georgia with a commanding 74 percent of the vote — but Donald Trump loyalist Kandiss Taylor, who finished in third place, still hasn’t formally conceded.

Taylor, a far right Christian nationalistWho ran? on a conspiracy theory-ridden platform challenging the so-called “Luciferian Cabal” of supposed elites in the government, received only 3.4 percent of the votesKemp lost to him by more than 70 points and he was trailed by David Perdue by more 18 points.

The race had been calledKemp on the night before the primary last Tuesday. Perdue was The Trump-endorsed candidate and the only Republican gubernatorial candidate who stood any chance of unseating Kemp in this year’s race. He called Kemp to condescend. last Tuesday nightAs official sourcesThe race.

In statements days after the race was called, Taylor said that she would never concede the race and claimed that it was “rigged” against her without evidence. “We have a national data team working on the 2022 primary election fraud. More will be forthcoming,” spokesperson Christi Maude told The Daily Beast. “Dr. Kandiss Taylor does not concede.” (Taylor tweeted on Monday that she was “wrong” and that her opponents “were not too scared to cheat,” but it’s unclear if this was meant as a concession.)

Taylor also said in a press release that the incumbent GOP governor, secretary of state and attorney general, as well as voting rights activist and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, have waged a “corrupt, organized, [and] willful assault” on elections. Notably, Abrams is not a lawmaker for the past five years. The incumbent Republicans had refused to overturn the state’s election results for Trump in 2020, but still supported the passage of their party’s sweeping voter suppression laws in the state.

Taylor was a campaign manager. embedded herself with some of the most extreme Trump allies that have peddled the former president’s “Big Lie,” rallying with people like MyPillow founder Mike Lindell and QAnon supporter Lauren Witzke. She has said that, if elected, she would make it so that corrupt state officials would be subject to “death by firing squad” if they aren’t loyal enough to the GOP.

Her “Jesus Guns Babies” campaign slogan was the subject ofMuch ridicule, and a major plankHer platform was to demolish an entire set large rock slabsIn northern Georgia, she claims to have found a symbol for Satanism. Although her platform may seem absurd, her rhetoric has clear ties to a dangerous far right Christian nationalist ideology that’s surging among RepublicanAll over the country.

Taylor’s refusal to concede is likely influenced by Trump’s refusal to ever formally concede the 2020 presidential election, though he and his teamThe loss has been acknowledged in vague terms. That’s opened the door for Republicans like TaylorTo maintain that Trump won, despite the fact that President Joe Biden won and has been serving in the presidency for more than a year,

Trump has indeed been an effective president over the past few years. has popularizedRepublicans use the strategy of not conceding races, even if the loss is to another Republican member. Though not conceding doesn’t carry official consequences — in this case, Kemp will go on to face Abrams on the ballot this fall — the strategy is part of the right’s overall plan to delegitimize the election process in the U.S.