Historic fine imposed on campaign finance violations committed by groups linked to Stacey Abrams.

The Georgia Ethics Commission fined two voting advocacy groups founded by Stacey Abrams, the failed Democrat gubernatorial candidate in 2018, for breaking campaign finance laws to boost Abrams' election.

"The Georgia State Ethics Commission has reached a consent agreement with the New Georgia Project and the New Georgia Project Action Fund for a total of $300,000. This is the largest fine ever imposed by any state ethics commission in the country related to an election and campaign finance case."

In 2013, Abrams established the New Georgia Project as a charity aimed at increasing voter registration among minorities and young people. The New Georgia Project Action Fund served as the organization's fundraising arm.

In 2018, the groups were found to have failed to disclose $4.2 million in contributions and $3.2 million in expenditures related to Abram's election efforts, resulting in 16 violations, including not registering as a political committee and not disclosing millions of dollars in political contributions, according to the commission's consent order.

In 2019, the groups were accused of carrying out similar activity and failing to disclose $646,000 in contributions and $174,000 while advocating for a ballot initiative.

The largest and most significant instance of an organization illegally influencing our statewide elections in Georgia has been discovered, and the ethics commission believes this sends a clear message to the public and potential bad actors that they will be held accountable.

In 2017, Abrams left the group and Warnock became its CEO. Later, in 2020, Warnock was elected as a U.S. senator from Georgia.

Warnock's Senate office spokesperson stated that he was working as a longtime champion for voting rights and was unaware of campaign violations. The spokesperson added that compliance decisions were not part of his work. Fox Digital also contacted Warnock's office for additional comment but did not receive an immediate response.

In 2018 and 2022, Abrams ran for governor of Georgia but lost to Republican Gov. Brian Kemp. After the 2018 race, Abrams gained national attention for not conceding to the Republican, despite losing by 60,000 votes.

During the 2018 election, she promoted the New Georgia Project on her Twitter account.

Abrams didn't wait for someone else to solve the problem of 800,000 people of color in Georgia not being registered to vote. Instead, she immediately took action and founded The New GA Project.

The New Georgia Project expressed relief in a comment to Planet Chronicle Digital, stating that they are "pleased to put this matter to rest" so they can "focus entirely on their work to engage and register black, brown, and young voters in Georgia."

Although we are disappointed that the federal court ruling on the constitutionality of the Georgia Government Transparency and Campaign Finance Act was overturned on procedural grounds, we accept this outcome and are eager to move forward with activities that took place more than five years ago.