Claim: Although Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp "opened" the state, his mansion remained closed for tours during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Verdict: SUPPORTS

Retrieved passages:
title: Brian Kemp
text: Brian Kemp Brian Porter Kemp (born November 2, 1963) is an American politician and businessman. He is currently the Governor-elect of Georgia, who served as the 27th Secretary of State of Georgia from 2010 to 2018. Kemp was appointed by then-Governor Sonny Perdue to succeed Karen Handel when she stepped down to run in the 2010 Georgia gubernatorial election. He was later elected to the position in 2010 and reelected in 2014. He will assume the office of the Governor of Georgia on January 14, 2019. Kemp's oversight of elections and election data as Secretary of State has stirred controversy

title: Georgia Governor's Mansion
text: current mansion. The Governor's Mansion is a three-level, 30-room, Greek Revival style home built in 1967. It stands on approximately 18 acres (73,000 m²) on historic West Paces Ferry Road in north-northwest Atlanta. It was designed by Georgia architect Thomas Bradbury and officially opened on January 1, 1968. In 1975, the mansion was heavily damaged in a tornado that struck west and then north Atlanta on the morning of March 24, occurring just a week after Governor Busbee moved in after his inauguration, and necessitating a renovation. It also led to the tornado being called the "governor's tornado", the worst

title: Georgia Archives
text: Georgia Secretary of State, Brian Kemp, announced that the Georgia Archive would close to the public as of Nov. 1, 2012. Reason for the closure was cited as a 3% budget cut ($732,626). Public access to records would be limited to scheduled appointments, with details for said appointments not yet announced. SOS Kemp stated that he regretted the closure and would "fight during this legislative session to have this cut restored." The decision to close the archive to the public was met with backlash from the public, as well as organizations for archivists, librarians, genealogists, and other scholarly groups. A

title: Georgia Governor's Mansion
text: acquired by a 70-member fine arts committee while the Mansion was being constructed. It is a permanent collection and belongs to the state of Georgia. It does not change from one administration to the next. Lester Maddox was the first governor to live there, followed by Jimmy Carter, George Busbee, Joe Frank Harris, Zell Miller, Roy Barnes, Sonny Perdue, and Nathan Deal who is the mansion's current resident. Lester and Virginia Maddox, the first residents of the mansion, set a precedent of opening the mansion to the public for regularly scheduled tours, and that tradition has continued through today. Tours

title: Brian Kemp
text: upon Kemp to resign as Secretary of State while running for governor, thus ensuring that he would not be overseeing his own election. Kemp has declined to do so. Almost a week before election day, Kemp cancelled a scheduled debate so that he could instead attend a Trump rally in Georgia. Kemp blamed Abrams for the cancellation, saying that she was unwilling to reschedule it. The date of the debate had been agreed-upon since mid-September. Two days before the election, Kemp's office announced that it was investigating the Georgia Democratic Party for unspecified "possible cybercrimes"; the Georgia Democratic Party stated

title: 2018 Georgia gubernatorial election
text: traveled to Georgia to campaign with him on July 20. Brian Kemp easily won the runoff by nearly 40 points despite the latest polls having him up by no more than 18. Cagle won only two counties, Monroe and Stephens. The Georgia Secretary of State has accused the Democratic Party of hacking into the state's voter database. Kemp retained his office as Georgia Secretary of State throughout the campaign, leading to allegations of a conflict of interest for overseeing an election in which Kemp himself is a candidate. During the campaign, he was called upon by former President Jimmy Carter,

title: Washington Governor's Mansion
text: Jongeward, an interior designer from Seattle who donated her services to the project. The plan called for the use of furnishings of the period from 1780 to 1830. In 1997 Governor Gary Locke and his family were repeatedly harassed by a colony of bats that were cohabiting the mansion. After the governor chased a bat out of his bedroom, the first family were vaccinated against rabies as a precaution. Eventually, as the infestation grew worse, Locke, his wife, child, and cats relocated to a private residence while groundskeepers dealt with the problem. Four years later, in 2001, the mansion was

title: Brian Kemp
text: Kemp was a home builder and developer before entering politics. He served as a Georgia State Senator from 2003 to 2007 after defeating the Democratic incumbent, Doug Haines. In 2006, Kemp ran for Agriculture Commissioner of Georgia. He came second in the primary, but he lost the runoff to Gary Black. 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, changing Kemp's plans. In early 2010 Kemp was appointed to Georgia Secretary of State by then-Governor Sonny Perdue.

title: Georgia Governor's Mansion
text: to hit the city until the 2008 storm that hit downtown. Later in 2008, the front door was damaged by fire during another renovation on the afternoon of September 11. The Atlanta Fire Department quickly extinguished the fire, and determined through thermal imaging that the fire had not spread inside the wall. Few people were present and nobody was injured, as it was after work hours, and the governor and his wife were away. The house covers 24,000 square feet (2,200 m²) and has a total of 30 Doric columns around the porches. These columns are made from California redwoods

title: Brian Kemp
text: Kemp won the 2010 election for a full term as Georgia Secretary of State with 56.4% of the vote, to 39.4% for his Democratic opponent, Georganna Sinkfield. Four years later, Kemp was reelected. Kemp rejects the conclusion by the United States Intelligence Community that Russia interfered in the 2016 election. Amid Russian interference in the 2016 election, Kemp denounced efforts by the Obama administration to strengthen the security of election systems, including improving access to federal cybersecurity assistance. He denounced the Obama administration's efforts, saying they were an assault on states' rights. After narrowly winning in the 2018 gubernatorial election,

title: 2018 United States gubernatorial elections
text: Wiseman is seeking the Libertarian nomination. DeSantis won election. Two-term Governor Nathan Deal is term-limited, as Georgia does not allow governors to serve three consecutive terms. Lieutenant Governor Casey Cagle and Secretary of State Brian Kemp won first and second place in the May 22 Republican primary; Cagle lost the runoff to Kemp on July 24, 2018. State Representative Stacey Abrams garnered the Democratic nomination outright. Ted Metz, chair of the Libertarian Party of Georgia, ran unopposed in the Libertarian primary. Kemp won election. The incumbent two-term governor Eddie Baza Calvo is term-limited, after his recent re-election win in 2014,

title: Brian Kemp
text: 2018 midterm election for failure to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. After the plan was challenged by the American Civil Liberties Union the locations were allowed to remain open. Kemp denied knowledge of the plan, but a slide from a presentation given by the consultant stated "Consolidation has come highly recommended by the Secretary of State and is already being adopted by several counties and is being seriously considered and being worked on by many more." Officials claim the locations were closed as a cost saving measure. Georgia has been the most aggressive state in removing registered voters

title: Brian Kemp
text: Georgia House of Representatives, in the 2018 general election. During the gubernatorial campaign, Kemp embraced Trump-like policies and themes. Kemp ran on a policy of imposing a state spending cap, opposing Medicaid expansion, and implementing the "strictest" abortion laws in the country. Kemp favors repealing the Affordable Care Act, describing it as "an absolute disaster," and supports litigation seeking to eliminate the law's protections for persons with a pre-existing condition. He has said he would sign a bill of "religious freedom and restoration", vetoed twice by governor Nathan Deal, which would allow refusal of contraception to women or services to

title: Brian Kemp
text: from President Donald Trump late in the campaign, which Trump made at the request of Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue. In the runoff election, Kemp was endorsed by the GeorgiaCarry.org and the Family Research Council as well as by Republican candidates who were eliminated in the primary, Michael Williams, Clay Tippins, and Hunter Hill. Many believe Perdue's support for Kemp was in response to Governor Nathan Deal's endorsement of Cagle. In the runoff election, Kemp defeated Cagle by a broad margin, receiving 408,595 votes (69.45%) to Cagle's 179,712 (30.55%). Kemp ran against Democratic nominee Stacey Abrams, the minority leader of the

title: Brian Kemp
text: he resigned his office of Secretary of State in anticipation of becoming Governor. As evidence mounted that Russian hackers were attempting to disrupt the 2016 elections, President Obama directed Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson to work with states to secure their voting systems as "critical infrastructure." Kemp was the only state election official who declined the help. In a 2017 interview, Kemp denounced the effort as an assault on states' rights, stating, "I think it was a politically calculated move by the previous administration," adding "I don’t necessarily believe" Russia had attempted to disrupt the elections. In August 2016, amid

title: Brian Kemp
text: wanting to be secretary of state and be running [for governor]," Cummings said. Kemp is married to Marty Kemp (née Argo); they have three daughters. The family belongs to the Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Athens. Kemp's father-in-law was Bob Argo (1923–2016), an Athens insurance executive and longtime member of the Georgia House of Representatives. In May 2018, Kemp was sued for failure to repay $500k in business loans. The suit is related to Kemp having personally guaranteed $10 million in business loans to Kentucky based company Hart AgStrong, a canola crushing company. The company is under investigation after making guarantees

title: Brian Kemp
text: suppression against him. Critics have described Kemp's actions as causing severe democratic backsliding in the state of Georgia, with legal scholar Richard L. Hasen describing his administration of the 2018 governor's election as "perhaps the most outrageous example of election administration partisanship in the modern era." Kemp denies that he engages in voter suppression. Kemp was born in Athens, Georgia, the son of William L. Kemp II. Kemp's grandfather, Julian H. Cox Sr., was a member of the Georgia Legislature. Kemp graduated from Athens Academy in 1983. He later graduated from the University of Georgia, where he majored in agriculture.

title: Old Governor's Mansion (Milledgeville, Georgia)
text: Governor Joseph E Brown led Georgia through the Civil War while living in the Mansion. During the Civil War, the Mansion was claimed as a "prize" during General Sherman's "March to the Sea" and Sherman made the Mansion his headquarters, spending the night of November 23, 1864 in the Mansion's family dining room. Following the loss of the capital, The Mansion was used as a boarding house until from 1868 - 1879, when the state loaned it to the newly organized Georgia Military and Agricultural College, and then to Georgia Normal and Industrial College, now Georgia College. The mansion served

title: Brian Kemp
text: again in 2017 when it was revealed that a flaw in the State voting system exposed the personal information of all of Georgia's 6.7 million voters, as well as passwords used by county election officials to access voter files, and went unfixed for 6 months after it was reported. After a lawsuit was filed, a server at the center of the controversy was wiped, preventing officials from determining the scope of the breach. Kemp denied responsibility, instead saying researchers at Kennesaw State University, who managed the system, had acted "in accordance with standard IT procedures" in deleting the data. Kemp

title: 2018 Georgia gubernatorial election
text: ruled the previous day that the votes must be counted and preserved. On November 16, every county certified their votes with Kemp leading by at most 55,000 votes. Shortly after, Abrams stated that she could not win the election. On November 16, Abrams suspended her campaign, acknowledging Kemp would be elected the next governor of Georgia, thus ending the race. Casey Cagle and Brian Kemp advanced to a runoff on July 24 since neither candidate amassed over 50% of the vote in the May 22 primary. On July 18, President Trump tweeted his support for Kemp, and Vice President Pence