Despite hauling in over $100 million for her second failed bid to become Georgia’s governor, Democrat Stacey Abrams’ campaign is deep in debt and unable to meet its obligations.
Axios reported Monday that the runup to her November loss suffered from cash flow problems. Campaign manager Lauren Groh-Wargo, who also steered Abrams to defeat in 2018, blamed “negative press and negative polling” leading up to Nov. 8.
In other words, even Democratic donors recognized a sinking ship when they saw it and chose not to throw good money after bad.
Groh-Wargo told the outlet that the campaign now owes over $1 million to vendors for services rendered. But the funding dried up so fast that nearly all of Abrams’ 180 full-time staffers were told their checks were cut off one week before the midterm election.
A disgruntled former staffer told Axios that people who worked for the candidate now have “no idea how they are going to pay their rent in January.”
She raised more than $100 million and still managed to end up in debt – after losing by 7.5 points!https://t.co/DMCtcEbILy
— Tom Bevan (@TomBevanRCP) December 19, 2022
The ex-employee called it “messed up.”
Another former Abrams worker noted that if the campaign raised over $100 million, “they should be able to pay me until December.”
The Abrams campaign sank so fast that Groh-Wargo admitted to working with brokers to sell donor and voter contact databases to pare down the debt gradually.
Poor money management plagued many facets of the would-be governor’s effort to unseat Republican Brian Kemp. Abrams’ New Georgia Project, which raised almost $25 million in 2020 to expand non-White voter rolls, was forced to lay off half of its leadership team in the weeks before Nov. 8.
The group is now over a month past due with filing its 2021 finances to the IRS. Further, the nonprofit continues to expose itself to fines and criminal charges for reportedly soliciting funds in at least nine states where it does not have a license.
Even worse, Abrams’ personal financial track record showed that during her first bid for governor in 2018 she’d racked up $54,000 in unpaid taxes to the IRS. She also carried $170,000 in credit card and student loan debt, all of which was cleared up before the latest campaign
Despite this record, she twice sought to be Georgia’s governor. With the latest revelations of financial mismanagement, it appears state taxpayers once again dodged a bullet.
