Stacey Abrams speaks during a campaign rally in Atlanta, GA on July 30, 2024 (Photo by Lawrence Cooper/Sipa USA)(Sipa via AP Images).
A group founded by Democratic Party activist and two-time election loser Stacey Abrams was assessed the largest campaign finance fine in Georgia history, a state ethics commission announced Wednesday.
The record $300,000 fine was for spending related to Abrams’ first failed gubernatorial run in 2018. During that campaign, the New Georgia Project and affiliated New Georgia Project Action Fund admittedly raised and spent millions of dollars on Abrams’ behalf.
Under Peach State law, the group should have filed as an independent committee and report both its fundraising and spending.
In sum, however, and without such a registration, the group failed to disclose some $4.216 million in contributions and $3.2 million in expenditures during the 2018 election cycle.
The Georgia State Ethics Commission and the nonprofit entered into a consent agreement released Wednesday following a vote to approve the resolution of the case by the agency.
“In this case, the Commission finds that Respondents failed to register as an independent committee prior to the acceptance of contributions and expenditure of independent expenditures for communications of express advocacy in the 2018 election cycle, and thereby spent unreported and unregulated monies to influence the election for Governor to the benefit of Stacey Abrams’ candidacy along with other statewide candidates,” the four-page consent order obtained by Law&Crime reads.
The order goes on to list 16 separate violations of law.
The first 12 violations are related to the 2018 election; the final four violations are related to a 2019 ballot initiative that aimed to expand the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) by raising sales taxes. The organization lobbied in favor of the public transit expansion – which voters also rejected. For that later campaign, the group raised some $646,000 and spent roughly $173,000.
“Today the State Ethics Commission entered into a consent agreement with the New Georgia Project and the New Georgia Project Action Fund for a total of $300,000,” the agency said in a press release. “This certainly represents the largest fine imposed in the history of Georgia’s Ethics Commission, but it also appears to be the largest Ethics Fine ever imposed by any State Ethics Commission in the country related to an election and campaign finance case.”
In a finding of facts section, the agency said the group spent electioneering funds on the campaigns of other Democrats, including “Sarah Riggs-Amico, John Barrow, and Charlie Bailey and other state-wide candidates for public office during the general election.”
Those funds were used for “canvassing activities, literature expressly advocating for the election of candidates, social media engagement, and operating field offices with paid staff where those electioneering activities were organized,” according to the order.
The New Georgia Project was founded by Abrams in 2014; she left the organization in 2017 when she began her run for governor. Later, the group was chaired by eventual-Sen. Raphael Warnock, a Democrat, from 2017 until 2020 when he began his own run for office, according to a November 2023 exposé on the group’s finances by Politico.
Law&Crime reached out to the nonprofit for comment on this story but no response was immediately forthcoming at the time of publication.
The $300,000 fine is to be paid in two installments, with the first half due by Feb. 15; the second half is due by Jan. 15, 2026.
“This represents the largest and most significant instance of an organization illegally influencing our statewide elections in Georgia that we have ever discovered, and I believe this sends a clear message to both the public and potential bad actors moving forward that we will hold you accountable,” the ethics commission added.
