ATLANTA — Five candidates took the stage Sunday night for the third and final debate in the race to become the Republican nominee in Georgia’s governor race.

The debates come as voting begins in the May 24 primary. Some counties are already mailing absentee ballots, and early in-person voting begins Monday.

It was a rather calm final debate held at Georgia Public Broadcasting where Republican candidates discussed issues of crime, education, election ballots and tax credits.

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Things started out with former Sen. David Perdue touting crime as one of his top issues of concern. Perdue then took another shot at Kemp, repeating his claim of fraud in the 2020 election.

“We know this governor is not enforcing the law safety law or election law,” Perdue said.

“I was as frustrated as anyone else with the election results, and I actually did something about it working with the Georgia assembly to address those issues,” Kemp responded.

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A lot of the focus was between candidates echoing the sentiments of making sure Democratic candidate Stacey Abrams isn’t elected governor.

“We cannot allow Stacey Abrams to be our governor or our president,” Kemp said.

“I would definitely say we don’t want Stacey Abrams, but we also don’t want Brian Kemp,” Tom Williams said.

Catherine Davis said candidates need to take their focus off of Abrams and focus on voters.

“Stacey Abrams is not the standard of which you should measure the governor of Georgia. You turned her into the boogie man,” Davis said.

Kandiss Taylor, who is polling below 5%, expressed why she should be the state’s first female elected governor.

“The people in Georgia don’t think I’m polling that low,” Taylor said. “I’m sick and tired of what’s been going on in our state.”

Democratic Party of Georgia chair Congresswoman Nikema Williams released the following statement after the debate Sunday.

“Rather than share their plans to help working families if elected our next governor, David Perdue and Brian Kemp used their three chances to address Georgians during debates to bicker over disproven election claims and double down on dangerous policies like criminal carry and school censorship designed to rile up their right-wing base. Neither offered ideas to curb gun violence, the leading cause of death for American children, or expand access to health care, even though Georgia has the second-highest uninsured rate in the country and rural hospitals are closing. Kemp and Perdue’s extreme policies that make us less safe, jeopardize our kids’ education, and increase our health care costs are the problem — and Stacey Abrams is the solution.”

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