Stacey Abrams-founded group settles case over illegal support for her campaign

A nonprofit founded by perennial candidate Stacey Abrams has settled a complaint with the Georgia Ethics Commission and will pay $300,000 to the state for illegally spending millions to bolster Abrams’ gubernatorial bid in 2018.

According to the consent order, which was made public on Wednesday following the ethics commission’s vote to approve it, the New Georgia Project and its fundraising arm, the New Georgia Project Action Fund, failed to disclose roughly $4.2 million in contributions and $3.2 million in expenditures that were used mostly to support Abrams during the 2018 primary and general election.

The order details 16 violations of state law, including the group’s failure to register as a political committee, failure to file a number of required disclosure reports, and failure to disclose millions of dollars in political contributions and expenditures. By agreeing to the consent order and by paying the $300,000 penalty, the New Georgia Project admits it broke the law, according to the order.

The consent order also details New Georgia Project’s involvement advocating for a ballot initiative in 2019 that would have expanded public transportation. That violation included more than $600,000 in contributions and $173,000 in expenditures.

David Emadi, executive director of Georgia’s ethics commission, said in a statement that the fine is the largest ever imposed by the commission and may be the largest fine by a state ethics board in a campaign finance case ever.

“While this fine is significant in scale, it is also appropriate given the scope of which state law was violated in this case,” Emadi said. “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.”

David Fox, who represented New Georgia Project at the hearing, said the agreement was a "reasonable resolution" for something that took place years ago, adding that the group is "eager to move forward."

During the ethics commission’s meeting on Wednesday, Emadi presented social media posts, checks, canvassing and phone banking information as evidence of New Georgia Project’s and the action fund’s work to bolster Abrams in 2018. The presentation also showed routine overlap between the two groups.

The board unanimously approved the consent order.

The agreement brings to a close a yearslong investigation into the group’s activity dating back to 2019 that went to court a number of times. The ethics commission subpoenaed for the group’s bank records and revised its complaint in 2022 after the Georgia Court of Appeals approved access to the statements.

In another case, the New Georgia Project sought to block the ethics board’s probe, but in July 2024 the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals threw out a district court ruling that had initially halted the investigation.

A 2023 POLITICO investigation found the group's former executive director — Nsé Ufot — owes the organization thousands of dollars in “non-work-related” reimbursements.

Abrams founded the New Georgia Project in 2014 as an offshoot of another nonprofit called Third Sector Development. Georgia Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock chaired the organization for more than two years, from when it first became an independent 501(c)3 in 2017 to January of 2020.

A spokesperson for Abrams did not immediately respond to a request for comment.