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By Jake Thomas
Night Reporter
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Republican Senator Marco Rubio called Stacey Abrams an election-denier for refusing to concede Georgia's 2018 governor's race, but made no mention of former President Donald Trump's baseless claims that his reelection was stolen.
Rubio made the comments about the Democratic hopeful for governor of Georgia on Tuesday night during a debate with Representative Val Demings in Lake Worth Beach. The Republican senator was asked if he would accept the election results amid growing concerns about American democracy, to which he replied he would accept the outcome of his race, unlike Abrams. However, Rubio didn't bring up Trump's repeatedly debunked claim that the 2020 presidential election was marred by widespread fraud.
"I'm not like Stacey Abrams in Georgia who denied her election," said Rubio. "I've never denied an election. I think in Florida, we have great election laws."
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After a close election in 2018, Abrams refused to concede the Georgia governor's race to Republican Brian Kemp, who was then overseeing elections as secretary of state. Abrams, who had led voter registration efforts, accused Kemp of deliberately keeping over 1 million Georgians from casting ballots by improperly removing them from the rolls.
"Concession means to acknowledge an action is right, true or proper," Abrams said in a speech following the election. "As a woman of conscience and faith, I cannot concede."
While Abrams acknowledged Kemp would take office, she filed a lawsuit alleging Georgia had violated the constitutional rights of voters. A federal judge in late September ruled that Georgia had not illegally suppressed the vote.
Following the 2020 presidential election, Trump has claimed that the vote was "rigged" against him, despite multiple state reviews, court decisions and members of his own administration concluding that it was fair.
Since then, Republicans have drawn parallels between Abrams, who is currently in a rematch with Kemp, and Trump.
After the 2020 election, Florida followed other red states in enacting more stringent laws over elections that opponents said made it harder to vote.
Demings said during the debate that her mother and father always made time to vote, even after working long days as a maid and janitor, respectively.
"Why on earth would we try to stop them from voting?" she said. "They were able to vote because of our democracy, the wonderful system of government that we have. No, it is not perfect, but our system of government is what allows us to be here tonight."
Proponents of Florida's new law include Rubio, who said it's made the vote more secure while not suppressing turnout, particularly among minorities. Rubio criticized Deming for supporting federal legislation intended to uphold voting rights that he said would amount to a "federal takeover of elections" that would prevent states from requiring voters to present identification before casting a ballot.
"I have been a Hispanic man my entire life," said Rubio. "I'm a minority. I've never felt like producing an ID disadvantages my ability to vote."
Newsweek reached out to the campaigns of Rubio and Abrams for comment*.*
Update 10/18/22, 9:09 p.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information and background.
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