(CBrief) – Two-time Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, who lost twice to GOP Gov. Brian Kemp in 2018 and in November, has a debt problem on her hands, according to a Tuesday report.
The Daily Wire noted that after raising north of $100 million for her latest race, Abrams’ campaign is in debt and still owes vendors. Her two-time campaign manager, Lauren Groh-Wargo, told Axios the campaign owes more than $1 million after Abrams lost to Kemp by nearly 300,000 votes.
“We did not just lose, we got blown out,” Groh-Wargo told the news outlet. “It was the most sub-optimal situation to be in. And we will be dealing with that situation for some time.”
The Daily Wire noted further:
Although Groh-Wargo said a “cavalcade of negative press and negative polling” was a burden on fundraising in the final stretch, Abrams had outraised Kemp via her campaign and leadership committee, One Georgia, with a total of $105.3 million through October 25, according to finance reports cited by GPB. Kemp, through his campaign and leadership committee, Georgians First, raised $81.5 million up to that point in time.
The GBP report said the total amount raised between the two sides broke the previous record. Together they raised four times the amount Abrams and Kemp did when they first faced off in 2018. Financial disclosures for the final quarter of this year are due next month.
After losing to Kemp four years ago by a much smaller margin, Abrams, a former Georgia House member, was seen as a rising Democratic Party star. She even touted herself to be “an excellent running mate” to then-presidential candidate Joe Biden during his 2020 campaign. She was often criticized, however, by Republicans and conservative media outlets for refusing to concede to Kemp following her 2018 loss.
A former staffer on Abrams’ campaign told 11Alive that most of the 2022 team of about 180 staffers got their final paychecks on Nov. 15, or about a week after she lost. The person noted that health benefits ran through the entire month, however, and the campaign’s human resources personnel helped former staffers find new jobs. Axios reported that, by comparison, Kemp’s campaign staff were paid through November and also got bonuses.
“If we had ended the campaign with enough money to pay staff through January, and we lost — I think there would be pieces coming out about why does [the campaign] have like $2 million in bank,” the former staffer told 11Alive. “I think the campaign was as transparent about things as it possibly could be.”
But another former Abrams staffer was not quite as forgiving. “I figured, $100 million? They should be able to pay me until December,” the person told Axios.
After conceding to Kemp last month, Abrams vowed to continue in politics nonetheless.
“Tonight, I am doing clearly what is the responsible thing, I am suspending my campaign for governor,” the candidate said. “I may no longer be seeking the office of governor, but I will never stop doing everything in my power to make sure the people in Georgia have a voice.”
“While I may have not crossed the finish line, that doesn’t mean that I won’t stop running for a better Georgia,” the Democrat said.
“Even though my fight — our fight — for the governor’s mansion came up short, I’m pretty tall,” she added.
As for Kemp, he managed to score big with voters and with endorsements.
“No one in Georgia’s history has done more to create jobs, cut taxes, restore sanity to your schools, put criminals behind bars, protect the unborn, and secure all the God-given liberties enshrined in the Constitution of the United States than Gov. Brian Kemp,” former Vice President Mike Pence told a crowd in Georgia ahead of the election.
“We’ve been doing good in this day because we have been saying no to Stacey Abrams,” Kemp added at the same event. “We were listening to you, and because we’ve done that, we’ve got an incredible economy. We’ve got the most people ever working in the history of the state, the lowest unemployment rate in the history of the state.”
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