Failed Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams’ nonprofit, Fair Fight, is laying off the majority of its staff, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Fair Fight, a group Abrams founded to combat alleged voter suppression in Georgia, will be laying off 75% of its staff and significantly narrowing its scope of operations, the AJC reported. The organization holds $2.5 million in debt but only has $1.9 million in cash, according to the AJC.
Salena Jegede, chair of the organization’s board, said that it faces a “serious funding deficit that makes our current trajectory unsustainable.”
Finances haven’t always been an issue for Abrams’ nonprofit.
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Fair Fight raised more than $100 million during its first three years of operations, according to AJC. Fair Fight Action, Fair Fight’s political arm, even aired an advertisement during the 2019 Super Bowl promoting Abrams.
Things appear to have begun going downhill for Abrams’ nonprofit after the 2020 election cycle.
Fair Fight Action had more than $21 million in net assets at the end of 2020, according to tax filings. That figure dropped to about $3.4 million in 2021 and again to just over $1.5 million in 2022, tax documents show.
More recently, a court ordered Fair Fight Action to pay about $231,000 in legal fees after it lost a years-long case alleging voter suppression in Georgia, the Washington Free Beacon reported. In addition to compensating Georgia for its spurious allegations, Fair Fight Action spent more than $25 million on legal expenses between 2021 and 2022, according to tax forms.
Much of the cash raised by Fair Fight directly benefited Stacey Abrams and those close to her.
Of the millions Abrams’ nonprofit spent on legal fees between 2021 and 2022, more than $9.4 million went to Lawrence & Bundy, a law firm where Abrams’ former campaign chair, Allegra Lawrence-Hardy, is a partner, according to tax documents.
Disclosures also show that Fair Fight donated $1.5 million to a pro-Abrams political committee and that the nonprofit dedicated $2 million worth of staff time to assisting Abrams during her second run for governor, according to the AJC.
An ethics watchdog had previously filed an IRS complaint alleging that Fair Fight Action violated federal law by focusing on promoting Abrams’ political career instead of its stated mission of protecting voting rights.
“We will adapt to this new phase of the fight for democracy by restructuring the organization to focus on how we serve Georgia and American voters for the 2024 cycle and beyond,” Jegede said.
Fair Fight did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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