Stacey Abrams’ Group Closes After Campaign Finance Crimes
The New Georgia Project, a voter rights group founded by Stacey Abrams, is shutting down after over a decade marked by critically important controversy and corruption allegations.The organization, which aimed too increase voter registration among Black and minority Georgians and advanced Democratic causes, was recently hit with a record $300,000 fine by the Georgia state Ethics Commission. This penalty stemmed from multiple violations of campaign finance laws, including failing to register as an independent political committee and not disclosing millions in contributions and expenditures that primarily supported Abrams’ unsuccessful gubernatorial campaigns and other Democratic efforts.
The Ethics Commission revealed that the group raised and spent unregulated funds during the 2018 election cycle and a 2019 referendum campaign. Evidence showed the New Georgia project actively campaigned in minority communities to boost votes for Abrams, despite presenting itself as a nonpartisan nonprofit.The scandal marked the largest campaign finance violation in Georgia’s history and lead to layoffs within the organization.
Political analysts have described the dissolution of the New Georgia Project as a dramatic fall for an influential Southern political group. Critics argue the closure is a significant setback for Abrams’ political ambitions, with some saying it could mark the end of her political career. Additionally, a state Senate committee is investigating Abrams and her associated groups regarding their handling of federal COVID relief funds. The controversy has elicited strong reactions from both political opponents and election law experts.
The dubious voter rights group founded by political grifter Stacey Abrams is closing its doors after a run of corruption like no other in Georgia history.
The New Georgia Project, according to its active website, claimed the group is “building long-term power in Georgia every year.” But a statement from the far-left organization released on Thursday announced the power has been turned off for Abrams’ old campaign ATM.
“After more than a decade of advancing civic engagement, equity, and justice across Georgia, The New Georgia Project (NGP) and The New Georgia Project Action Fund (NGPAF) will officially dissolve as organizations,” the board of directors wrote in the statement.
The New Georgia Project and its political action arm certainly advanced the riches of Democrat Abrams, who benefitted immensely from New Georgia’s generous contributions to her failed campaigns for governor.
‘Illegally Influencing Our Elections’
Earlier this year, the Georgia State Ethics Commission unanimously voted to fine New Georgia a whopping $300,000 after the liberal get-out-the-vote groups admitted raising millions for Abrams’ failed gubernatorial campaign — without registering as an independent political committee. That’s illegal under Georgia campaign finance law. And so is failing to disclose contributions and expenditures.
As The Federalist reported, the New Georgia Project and its super PAC partner admitted to 16 violations of the law, spending “unregulated and unknown monies” during the 2018 election cycle and on a 2019 failed public transportation referendum campaign. The groups, according to Ethics officials, failed to disclose north of $4.2 million, spending all but about $1 million of that to benefit the far-left candidate’s unsuccessful run for governor and the campaigns of fellow Democrats.
The New Georgia Project failed to report $646,000 in contributions and $173,000 in expenditures tied to a referendum campaign, according to David Emadi, executive secretary of the Georgia State Ethics Commission.
It was an unprecedented fine, the largest campaign finance penalty in the history of the Ethics Commission and, apparently nationally.
“This clearly represents the largest, most significant instance of an organization illegally influencing our elections in Georgia at a statewide level that we’ve ever uncovered,” Emadi said during the commission’s two-hour meeting in January.
‘Masquerading as a Partisan Nonprofit’
Greg Bluestein, chief political reporter for the liberal Atlanta Journal-Constitution and analyst for MSNBC and NBC, described the New Georgia Project as once “one of the most influential political groups in the South.” In a post on X, Bluestein wrote that the cash funneler’s political suicide as “a stunning fall or an organization that pushed to advance Democratic causes for more than a decade.”
Once one of the most influential political groups in the South, the New Georgia Project is shutting down this week, marking a stunning fall for an organization that pushed to advance Democratic causes for more than a decade. https://t.co/0SRZFR5WLx
— Greg Bluestein (@bluestein) October 16, 2025
“Since our founding, we have believed that every voice matters and that democracy thrives when people are informed, organized, and empowered,” the statement from the New Georgia Project boasts. It’s an interesting assertion from an organization that failed to disclose massive campaign contributions to Democrats, particularly New Georgia’s old political pal Abrams.
According to the Georgia Ethics Commission, Abrams launched the New Georgia Project in 2013 as part of a division of her corporation, Third Sector Development. She served as CEO of the entity from August 1998 until March 2019, according to an online resume of her leftist credentials.
Abrams started the “project” to “focus on registering more Black and other non-white Georgians to vote, earning her national recognition for her work for growing the state’s electorate and boosting engagement among disaffected voters,” according to the Georgia Recorder.
A mountain of evidence shows the groups boosted votes for Abrams.
As The Federalist previously reported, Emadi, the ethics commission executive secretary, showed state regulators campaign mailers and social media ads funded by the New Georgia Project urging Georgians in black and Hispanic communities to get out and vote for Abrams. He noted a “pretty robust” door-knocking campaign “clearly advocating for Ms. Abrams’ election. Thousands of doors, thousands of voters, he said. By the end of October 2018, the group operated field offices statewide,” Emadi said.
“This was an advocacy organization that was masquerading as a nonpartisan nonprofit,” Hans von Spakovsky, manager of the Heritage Foundation’s Election Law Reform Initiative. He said it is a “good thing for the people fo Georgia, whether they are liberals or conservatives that this kind of shoddy, and corrupt organization is shut down.”
‘Last Nail in the Coffin’
The office of Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, the Republican incumbent who twice defeated Abrams in the statewide governor’s races despite Abrams’ and her allies’ constant and false accusations of “voter suppression”, told Atlanta News First that “Georgians everywhere can rest easy tonight knowing that there is one less way for Stacey Abrams to fleece people and get rich.”
Not long after the state campaign finance regulator slapped the New Georgia Project and its action fund with the historic fine, the groups announced more than a dozen staffers were being laid off.
A special state Senate committee is looking into Abrams and the grassroots voting rights groups over its use of federal Covid relief funds. The same panel launched an investigation into disgraced Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ and her politically-driven prosecution of President Donald Trump after he left the White House following his first term.
Von Spakovsky said the dissolution of Abrams’ old organizations and campaign benefactors in the wake of historic ethics violations “is the last nail in the coffin for her political career.”
“She’ll have to go back to writing romance novels,” the election law expert said.
Matt Kittle is a senior elections correspondent for The Federalist. An award-winning investigative reporter and 30-year veteran of print, broadcast, and online journalism, Kittle previously served as the executive director of Empower Wisconsin.
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