Brian Kemp
27th Secretary of State of Georgia
Incumbent
Assumed office January 8, 2010
Governor	Sonny Perdue Nathan Deal
Preceded by	Karen Handel
Member of the Georgia Senate from the 46th district
In office January 3, 2003 – January 3, 2007
Preceded by	Doug Haines[1]
Succeeded by	Bill Cowsert
Personal details
Born	(1963-11-02) November 2, 1963 (age 60) Athens, Georgia, U.S.
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Marty Argo
Education	University of Georgia (BS)

Brian P. Kemp (born November 2, 1963) is an American politician and businessman serving as 27th and current Secretary of State of Georgia since 2010. Kemp succeeded Karen Handel when she stepped down to run in the 2010 Georgia gubernatorial election.

Kemp previously had served as a Georgia State Senator from 2002 to 2006 after defeating the Democratic incumbent. In 2006, Kemp ran for Agriculture Commissioner of Georgia. He came second in the primary^[2], but he lost the runoff to Gary Black.^[3] Kemp initially declared intent to run for State Senate District 47 when incumbent Ralph Hudgens planned to run for Congress in Georgia's 10th congressional district. Hudgens withdrew and ran for reelection.^[4] In early 2010 Kemp was appointed to Georgia Secretary of State by then Governor Sonny Perdue.^[5] Kemp won the 2010 election for a full term as Georgia Secretary of State with 56.4% to 39.4% for his Democratic opponent, Georganna Sinkfield.^[6] In 2014, Kemp was reelected; he is currently running for Governor of Georgia in 2018 and made the Republican runoff along with Lieutenant Governor Casey Cagle.

Personal life

Brian Kemp is a life-long resident of Athens who is married and has 3 teenage daughters: Jarrett, Lucy, and Amy. He attended Clarke Central High School and the University of Georgia, where he obtained a bachelor of science degree in agriculture. His wife, Marty, was a cheerleader at the university. He along with his family are also active members of Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Athens.^[7] Kemp is also son in-law of longtime Georgia Lawmaker and Athens Insurance Executive Bob Argo.^[8]

Gubernatorial Campaign

On March 31, 2017, Kemp announced his candidacy in the 2018 Georgia gubernatorial election. Kemp has since released a "4 point plan to put Georgia first", which serves as his official platform. According to his campaign website, the plan focuses on rebuilding the infrastructure of rural Georgia and supporting legislation that is favorable to small businesses.^[9]

Peach Breach

In October 2015, Secretary of State’s Office disclosed the Social Security numbers and other private information of more than 6 million of Georgia's registered voters. That data went to 12 organizations, including political parties and media outlets, who regularly subscribe to “voter lists” maintained by the state. Kemp’s office responded by blaming a “clerical error”. Kemp said, “Our office shares voter registration data every month with news media and political parties that have requested it as required by Georgia law. Due to a clerical error where information was put in the wrong file, 12 recipients received a disc that contained personal identifying information that should not have been included. This violated the policies that I put in place to protect voters personal information."^[10]

Gary Cooley

On November 18, Kemp acknowledged the problem to the public. He tried to calm Georgia voters, saying his office had received verbal confirmation from the 12 groups that no one had copied the State Download File. To be sure, his office would retrieve each CD and collect a signed affidavit from each recipient to ensure no copies were made. Kemp said, “I am confident that all personal information is safe and secure,”. As a result, Kemp fired a longtime state programmer, Gary Cooley for his alleged role in massive data breach.^[11]

In an interview with the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Cooley expressed that he did not have the security clearance to add millions of Social Security numbers and birth dates to a public data file. Cooley was quoted, “it was just a kick in the teeth” to be blamed for a gaffe involving more than 6 million voters’ Social Security numbers and other private data.^[12] When asked if he felt like a scapegoat, Cooley responded by saying, "It seems like the pure definition of the word, what happened to me. I just want to clear my name and get the story correct, I told the absolute truth.”^[13]

Kennesaw State Election Server Data Wipe

In October 2017, it was reported that a election server’s data was destroyed on July 7, 2017 by technicians at the Center for Elections Systems at Kennesaw State University, which is responsible for running Georgia's election system(The Kennesaw elections center answers to Georgia’s secretary of state). This caused a stir due to a lawsuit filed just days before on July 3, 2017 by a group of election reform advocates, aiming to force Georgia to update its antiquated and heavily criticized election technology. The plaintiffs (mostly Georgia voters) were counting on an independent security review of the Kennesaw server, which held elections staging data for counties, to demonstrate the 15-year-old vote management system’s unreliability. Specifically, it's 27,000 AccuVote touchscreen voting machines, hackable devices that don’t use paper ballots or hardcopy proof of voter intent.^[14] Richard DeMillo, a Georgia Tech computer scientist was quoted, "An analysis of the files themselves would be useful in knowing whether election software or databases were altered in any way that would be useful to hackers intent on changing votes”.^[15]

It was claimed upon release via open records request of an 180-page collection of Kennesaw State emails that details the destruction of the data on all three servers and a partial and ultimately ineffective effort by Kennesaw State systems engineers to fix the main server’s security hole.^[16] Kemp responded with harsh criticism,“Despite the undeniable ineptitude at KSU’s Center for Elections Systems,” he added, “Georgia’s elections are safe and our systems remain secure.”^[17]

Business

Brian Kemp is an active small business owner today with companies involved in agribusiness, financial services, and real estate management and investment.

Electoral history

References

External links

• Biodata
• Campaign website
• Brian P. Kemp