A voter registration nonprofit founded by former Georgia state Rep. Stacey Abrams secretly boosted her 2018 gubernatorial bid in violation of campaign finance law and was slapped with a $300,000 fine Wednesday.
The New Georgia Project and its action fund fessed up spending $3.2 million to foot the bill for canvassers and fliers supporting Abrams, 51, and others without disclosing those contributions. It agreed to pay the fine from Georgia’s ethics commission.
“We are glad to finally put this matter behind us so the New Georgia Project can fully devote its time and attention to its efforts to civically engage and register black, brown, and young voters in Georgia,” Aria Branch, counsel to the nonprofit, told The Post in a statement.
“We accept this outcome and are eager to turn the page on activities that took place more than five years ago.”
New Georgia Project also neglected to register as an independent campaign committee in a breach of state law. In total, there were at least 16 instances of infractions, the ethics panel concluded.
In 2019, a year after the governor’s race, both groups also failed to divulge $646,000 worth of donations as well as $174,000 worth of spending to back a failed referendum for Gwinnett County to join the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority.
The ethics fine slapped against the two groups is the largest of its kind in the ethics commission’s 38-year history, according to executive director David Emadi. It concludes a six-year battle between the ethics commission and the nonprofits.
Abrams became a progressive darling for her strong showing against Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R), losing by about 1.4 percentage points in that year’s “blue wave.”
She also refused to concede her loss was legitimate and dubiously alleged voter suppression was at play.
She later had a rematch against Kemp in 2022 but was defeated by an even larger margin of about 7.5 percentage points.
Abrams founded the New Georgia Project in 2013 as part of an effort to get minority groups registered to vote and energized.
Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) helmed the group at the time of the violations. He was elected to the upper chamber in 2021.
A Warnock spokesperson stressed that he was a board chair at the time and did not deal with compliance decisions.
“In this role, Reverend Warnock continued his work as a longtime champion for voting rights. Compliance decisions were not a part of that work,” Warnock spokesperson Michael Brewer told The Post.
Prior to the decision Wednesday, the New Georgia Project argued that it engaged in behavior similar to other nonprofits and accused the commission of targeting it for political reasons. The panel is comprised of one Democrat and four Republicans.
Georgia’s ethics commission previously fined advocacy group Gente for Abrams $50,000 in 2020 for similarly neglecting to properly file on its spending to back her during the 2018 race.
The Post has contacted an Abrams spokesperson for comment.
Despite her past losses, Abrams has indicated that she’s open to running again in 2026.
