A liberal voting rights group illegally spent millions trying to make Stacey Abrams Georgia’s governor in 2018. Now, it’s paying the price.
The Georgia State Ethics Commission announced on Wednesday that it would fine New Georgia Project and New Georgia Project Action Fund $300,000 for its hidden use of dark money during Abrams’ first gubernatorial campaign. The group illegally raised over $4.2 million, then poured over $3.2 million into efforts supporting Abrams’ and other Georgia Democrats’ elections, paying for flyers, organizing field offices and hiring thousands of canvassers who knocked hundreds of thousands of doors.
“It’s proof that there were illegal, bad actors pushing her across the finish line,” David Emadi, executive director of the ethics commission, told NOTUS. “This notion that these were organizations just out to help register voters is an outright lie.”
As part of the settlement, New Georgia Project and New Georgia Project Action Fund, the group’s advocacy arm, agreed to the fine and admitted to 16 financial disclosure violations during the 2018 election cycle. Although it raised and spent money to support Democratic candidates and a ballot initiative in Gwinnett County, the group never registered with the state as an independent committee — a state requirement for outside groups to spend money on an election — and never filed the disclosure reports required by the commission.
The fine is the largest ever issued by Georgia’s ethics commission, and it follows years of betrayal, desperation and, ultimately, acceptance from what was once Georgia’s preeminent grassroots organization.
New Georgia Project did not respond to a request for comment prior to publication.
Troves of evidence, including donor and banking records exclusively obtained by NOTUS, paint a damning picture of a very public campaign that the group plastered across social media. It was enough to catch the commission’s attention. In September 2019, it initiated a complaint against New Georgia Project and subpoenaed it and New Georgia Project Action Fund for its banking records and campaign materials.
The commission later subpoenaed Wells Fargo, the group’s bank, after New Georgia Project and its action fund failed to provide its banking records.
Two years and several legal fights later, the commission received the records. They showed that the group had accepted over $4 million in contributions and paid more than $3 million from May 2017 to March 2019. The money flowed through New Georgia Project, according to Emadi. Donation links posted on the action fund’s social media during the election cycle directed individuals to New Georgia Project instead of its action fund.
As a nonprofit 501(c)(3), New Georgia Project is not allowed to advocate for political candidates. But records viewed by NOTUS show a significant overlap between NGP and its action fund during the election cycle.
Business checks bearing The New Georgia Project, Inc. mark were issued to canvassers, while another check bearing the same mark was issued with the memo, “Digital Ads Gwinnett Transit Plan,” referring to the 2019 MARTA ballot initiative that New Georgia Project Action Fund was advocating for in Gwinnett County.
Records show bulk purchases of campaign materials, like door hangers and palm cards, by the New Georgia Project. The materials were given out by canvassers wearing shirts that identified them with the New Georgia Project Action Fund.
Campaign flyers purchased by New Georgia Project advocated for Abrams and other Democratic candidates, including Rep. Lucy McBath and then state Sen. Jen Jordan.
A breakthrough followed the initial complaint. A former New Georgia Project employee, Stacey Hopkins, approached the commission. She claimed to have witnessed illegal activity when she worked with the group as an office manager.
In a sworn affidavit, Hopkins said she saw canvassing materials used during the primary election that belonged to New Georgia Project. She also said that NGP canvassers were given reloadable gift cards to pay for gas to travel where they were to canvass. The canvass lead organizer distributed the cards.
The entire affair was marked by repeated rebukes from the legal system as New Georgia Project and its action fund tried to delay the commission’s investigation.
The group filed motions to invalidate the commission’s original subpoenas. The motions were denied. New Georgia Project filed an appeal, but it failed because it was misfiled. In October 2021, the group filed for relief with the Gwinnett County Superior Court. It was denied.
“If the agency’s personnel did not have strong backbones and did not give up, then we would have never been able to uncover this,” commission Vice Chairman Rick Thompson told NOTUS. “It’s unfortunate that an organization that knew they did wrong decided that they wanted to fight it so long just to try to wear down a state agency in the court of law.”
New Georgia Project was founded by Abrams in 2014. She left the group’s leadership in 2017, when she began her campaign for governor. Representatives for Abrams did not respond to a request for comment prior to publication.
The commission did not accuse Abrams of wrongdoing. Emadi told NOTUS that emails showed her campaign did communicate with the group, but there was no evidence of coordination.
However, there remained an overlap between New Georgia Project and Abrams’ original nonprofit, Third Sector Development, during the campaign. New Georgia Project was founded as a division of Third Sector before being independently registered in 2017. Despite the separation on paper, the two organizations shared the same principal address in Atlanta during the election cycle.
Third Sector also made multiple contributions directly to New Georgia Project in the same time period, including contributions of $40,000 in October 2017 and $200,000 in 2018 before the general election, according to Emadi.
The fine is a culmination of what has been a dramatic fall from grace for the group. New Georgia Project was integral to building the Democratic infrastructure that helped turn the state blue in 2020, electing President Joe Biden and Democratic Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock. But financial mismanagement and leadership changes have hindered the group’s effectiveness in recent years.
Half of the $300,000 fine is due within 30 days. The rest must be paid by January 15, 2026.
“This notion that this is some great voting rights organization she founded, it has now been exposed as a fundamental falsehood,” Emadi said. “And what they were really focused on was illegally trying to get her elected.”
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CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story mistitled Jen Jordan. She is a former state senator.
Ben T.N. Mause is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.