Georgia GOP gubernatorial candidate Brian Kemp recorded fretting about Democratic voter turnout

Georgia gubernatorial candidates Stacey Abrams, the Democrat, and Republican Secretary of State Brian Kemp faced off in the first of two debates Tuesday night, and the issue of voting rights dominated the discourse. Kemp, who is overseeing the election, is under fire for putting at least 53,000 voter applications on hold, 70 percent of them for black voters, plus purging voter rolls and enacting other policies that critics say are aimed at suppressing minority turnout to sink Abrams' bid to be America's first black woman governor. The polls currently show a statistical tie.

"Under Secretary Kemp, more people have lost the right to vote in the state of Georgia," Abrams said. "They've been purged, they've been suppressed, and they've been scared. ... Voter suppression isn't only about blocking the vote. It's also about creating an atmosphere of fear, making people worry that their votes won't count." Kemp called the idea he is suppressing voters "totally untrue."

Earlier Tuesday, however, Rolling Stone published audio recorded at a ticketed campaign event last Friday suggesting Kemp is at least concerned about Abrams voters turning out en masse. Her campaign's extensive get-out-the-vote campaign, including the "unprecedented number" of absentee ballots requested, Kemp said, "is something that continues to concern us, especially if everybody uses and exercises their right to vote — which they absolutely can — and mail those ballots in."

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Also on Tuesday, FOX 5 Atlanta reported that Kemp's real estate investment companies still owe $800,000 of about $2 million they borrowed from a bank Kemp helped found, First Madison Bank, in 2007 and 2008 during the financial meltdown. Kemp, who sits on the board of the bank, and his campaign would not disclose the terms of the insider loans or explain why they hadn't been paid back yet. You can read more about the loans, and the federal laws governing such insider lending, at FOX 5.