Stacey Abrams is a phenomenally ambitious political operative and businesswoman whose net worth has grown substantially during her multiple failed political campaigns. Now allegedly worth $3.17 million, her net worth has ballooned from her reported "$109,000 net worth four years ago." In 2019 prior to her gubernatorial run, she settled a $54,000 tax bill with the IRS along with credit card and student loan debt. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Abrams "revealed her debt to the IRS, as well as about $170,000 in credit card and student loan debt, in financial documents in March 2018 that showed her net worth was roughly $110,000. At the time, Abrams said she deferred the tax payments in 2015 and 2016 to help pay her family's medical expenses and that she was on a payment plan to settle the debts."
Abrams' Involvement in Private and Non-Profit Sectors is Extensive
Her financial involvement in the private and non-profit sectors is not always transparent or easily tracked, leaving questions about how she has become a multi-millionaire as she became a rising star in politics. Some of her wealth comes from speaking fees and book deals as well. She began writing romance novels under the pen name Selena Montgomery in law school. Her royalties grew from about $125,000 in 2017 to over $2 million in 2022.
A June 2021 column from UncoverDC reported some of the non-profits and private entities with which Abrams is involved, including Fintech's NOWAccount, used to secure a line of credit for Happy Faces. Happy Faces was contracted to supply temporary staffing during Georgia's 2020 Fulton County elections. The contract was extended for the 2022 midterms. Abrams is heavily involved in political fundraising networks and PACs as well as "founding and co-founding businesses." She co-founded NOWAccount with longtime business partner Laura Hodgson in 2010. According to reporting by AXIOS, she is still an investor in the company and "rejoined as an advisor in 2021 and helped lead a recent $9.5 million round of investment funding."
AXIOS compiled a comprehensive resume of Abrams' political and business-related endeavors. Her accomplishments are nothing short of remarkable. In the political realm, Abrams has her hands in elections, voting rights and access, candidate fundraising, the census, policy think tanks, training Democratic operatives, and PACs. The New Georgia Project alone raised about $25 million. Abrams created the project in 2013 but is no longer affiliated. A July 2022 Axios column on the group reported the Georgia state ethics commission alleged the New Georgia Project "failed to disclose more than $3 million worth of electioneering expenses and more than $4 million in political contributions between 2017 and 2019. The organization has also been accused of voter registration fraud, allegedly soliciting dead and out-of-state voters to win elections, capitalizing on the notoriously poorly maintained voter rolls.
The New Georgia Project also allegedly "received nearly $500,000 in COVID-19 bailout cash during a year its donations swelled by tens of millions of dollars, according to the organization's public tax forms." According to the Veracity Report:
"The organization, which Abrams founded in 2014, applied for and received a $482,000 Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan in May 2020 as part of the first round of bailouts intended to help financially strapped small businesses retain employees during the pandemic. The loan says it went towards 95 jobs. But a review of the New Georgia Project's tax documents shows that the left-wing voter registration group was far from struggling and finished that year in its best financial shape since its inception six years prior."
Non-profits and Politics/Abrams/https://www.axios.com/local/atlanta/2022/10/12/stacey-abrams-how-network-businesses-nonprofits-led-national-platform
Fair Fight Action, a voting rights organization, allegedly spent "more than $25 million over two years on legal fees, with the largest amount going to the self-described boutique law firm" of Abrams' close friend and campaign chairwoman, Allegra Lawrence Hardy. According to Politico:
"The firm received $9.4 million from Abrams' group, Fair Fight Action, in 2019 and 2020, the last years for which federal tax filings are available. Lawrence-Hardy declined to comment on how much her firm has collected from Fair Fight Action in 2021 and 2022 — years in which Fair Fight Action v. Raffensperger, for which Lawrence-Hardy was lead counsel, had most of its courtroom activity."
Abrams also makes bank due to her involvement in media and publicity through her writing, speaking, and cameos.
Media and Publicity/Abrams/https://www.axios.com/local/atlanta/2022/10/12/stacey-abrams-how-network-businesses-nonprofits-led-national-platform
Business-wise, Abrams has shown herself to be equally capable and involved. Currently, she is intimately involved in NowAccount Network Corporation, The Family Room, Inc—a video app for children—and Sage Works Productions, Inc., a video production company. She has been the CEO there since 2002.
Abrams is listed as a board member in the mysterious Dream Project Partners venture, but the details of her involvement are unclear due to an NDA. The company has "no real online presence" besides "her financial disclosure form and corporate records." According to reporting by the Free Beacon, she has been paid "at least $150,000 by the company since 2020." Other shadowy business dealings include one of her past businesses, Myrina Strategies. It allegedly dissolved in 2016 because Abrams didn't "disclose payments through the company from the 2014 Michelle Nunn campaign in her state report." Abrams co-founded the company with her sister in 2013.
Business Dealings/Present and Past/Abrams/https://www.axios.com/local/atlanta/2022/10/12/stacey-abrams-how-network-businesses-nonprofits-led-national-platform
Abrams serves on several lucrative boards from foundations to solar tech companies to NGOs like the National Democratic Institute, a non-profit international NGO that works to "strengthen and safeguard democratic institutions, processes, norms and values to secure a better quality of life for all."
Board Seats/Abrams/https://www.axios.com/local/atlanta/2022/10/12/stacey-abrams-how-network-businesses-nonprofits-led-national-platform
Abrams' Campaigns: "Will Likely Run Again"
The "Yale-trained tax attorney" says she "likely run again" after two failed attempts to win the gubernatorial seat in Georgia. According to her two-time campaign manager Laura Groh-Wargo, she is allegedly more than $1 million in debt. Abrams is a wizard at fundraising. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports she raised $113 million for her 2022 campaign and $27 million in 2018. Kemp raised $78 million in 2022 to win by "more than 7.5 percentage points." However, Follow the Money shows she raised $51,403,050 in the 2022 gubernatorial race. According to the website, there are a large number of unitemized donations, about $20 million. Large donors include Carol Tolan, a Democratic philanthropist, the Stacey Abrams Campaign Committee, George Soros, several unions, and numerous other individual donors. The Georgia Campaign Finance Commission also provides an itemized accounting of contributions to her campaign. Many of the contributions were from small donors.
According to the Georgia Campaign Finance Commission, Abrams' top expenditures during her campaign were with Democratic-leaning AL Media, LLC. She spent a total of $1,631,524 for their media services on ads like this. Also at the top of the list, Abrams spent another $125,000 on Assemble the Agency, a Democrat-leaning digital public opinion mover and shaker. The team there raised over $9 million for her 2022 campaign by cultivating and "building new-donor audiences on Facebook," adding 4.7 million new donors to her campaign database. She also spent about $174,000 with her Fair Fight Action, $173,256.60 of which was spent on "list purchase," presumably voter lists. Abrams spent $130,480 on security services during her campaign.
