This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

A robocall apparently from a white supremacist group has injected racism directly into the Georgia governor’s race, a tight contest already the subject of race-laden debate over ballot access and voter suppression.

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The Democratic candidate, Stacey Abrams, is campaigning to be the first black female governor in US history. Republican Brian Kemp, who oversees elections as Georgia’s secretary of state, vehemently denies charges that he has used his office to make it harder for minorities to vote.

Both candidates condemned an automated telephone call filled with racist and antisemitic statements that was sent to an unknown number of Georgians.

The voice on the call impersonated Oprah Winfrey, the billionaire media titan who came to Georgia on Thursday to support Abrams. It said it was paid for by The Road to Power, a group organized by Scott Rhodes of Idaho, who has been linked to several other racist robocalls including a recent effort in Florida, where the Democrat Andrew Gillum would become the first black governor in his state’s history.

These automated calls are being sent into homes just days before President Trump arrives Abigail Collazo, Abrams spokeswoman

Kemp issued a statement calling the tactic “vile” and “contrary to the highest ideals of our state and country”, and condemning “any person or organization that peddles this type of unbridled hate and unapologetic bigotry”.

The Abrams camp blasted the call but also took a shot at Kemp and his highest profile supporter, Donald Trump, who will campaign in the state on Sunday. A top Abrams aide said Kemp and Trump have contributed to a poisonous atmosphere, and that Kemp has been silent on previous racially loaded attacks on Abrams.

“These automated calls are being sent into homes just days before President Trump arrives, reminding voters exactly who is promoting a political climate that celebrates this kind of vile, poisonous thinking,” said Abrams’ spokeswoman Abigail Collazo.

Abrams sidestepped the issue in brief public remarks as she greeted voters at an Atlanta shopping complex along with her local congressman, the civil rights veteran John Lewis.

“Georgia has long been on a path of change and evolution,” Abrams said. She also said the election is about issues like expanding Medicaid insurance and focusing state spending on public education, job training and small business start-ups.

“I’m the only candidate with a plan to get that done and to do that without vitriol, without vilifying people,” she said.

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Lewis, the 78-year-old who as a young man was severely beaten by police as he fought for voting rights in the Jim Crow south, said: “This young lady is playing a major role in helping liberate all of us, liberate the state of Georgia, liberate the South, liberate America.”

Kemp did not address the robocalls at his only scheduled campaign stop on Saturday, at a Cuban restaurant in a north-Atlanta suburb. He told a packed crowd the race was a simple choice between economic prosperity under Republican leadership or a turn to “socialism” under Democrats. He then blasted Abrams’ policy pitches on healthcare and education.

Two men protesting Kemp’s immigration policy were forcibly removed. As a TV crew from MSNBC tried to film the hecklers being removed, a Kemp supporter physically blocked their path.

Someone out front, meanwhile, was wearing a giant chicken suit and holding a sign that read “too chicken to debate”, an allusion to Kemp withdrawing from a debate scheduled on Sunday in favor of appearing in Macon with Trump.