EXCLUSIVE — The Georgia Republican Party said news of Stacey Abrams’s eye-watering campaign debt is proof voters “made the right decision” in not electing her.
“Back-to-Back loser Stacey Abrams, mismanaging her campaign and failing her staff, is par for course,” Ryan Caudelle, the executive director of the party, told the Washington Examiner. “It shows that voters in Georgia made the right decision voting overwhelmingly for Gov. Kemp and to continue supporting his pro-business policies helping all Georgians.”
STACEY ABRAMS CAMPAIGN REPORTS $1.4 MILLION IN DEBT
“If Abrams can’t manage her own campaign, then how could anyone expect her to manage the great state of Georgia?” Caudelle said.
Brynn Anderson/AP
The Abrams campaign reported the debt on a Monday financial disclosure with the state’s campaign finance commission, which followed December 2022 reports on some of its controversial expenditures. Those payments were for a TikTok “hype house” that was sparingly used and a “swag truck” to provide free merchandise to young people, according to reports.
Abrams, who raised over $113 million, lost by over 299,000 votes to Kemp, who trounced her by roughly 55,000 votes in 2018. The Democrat repeatedly claimed without evidence that the 2018 election was “rigged” because of voter suppression.
The debt that her campaign and leadership committee reported is owed to a combination of lawyers, a policy consulting and opposition research firm, and notably, a media company. The company is her firm AL Media, and it is entitled to roughly $1.2 million, filings show.
Between the leadership committee and campaign, Abrams is down to roughly $100,000 in cash on hand, according to filings. Abrams, however, said on Monday that she “will likely run again.”
“Well, if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again,” she told Drew Barrymore on her show. “And if it doesn’t work, you try again. But this issue is, what did you learn? Did you learn about yourself? What did you learn about your opponent and making sure you’re always remembering why you’re doing it.”
Caudelle thinks that voters should be hard-pressed to think Abrams can manage the state of Georgia if she cannot manage her own campaign’s finances.
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“I mean, hey, if she wants to mismanage another campaign, and she wants to waste Democrat dollars, all the power to her,” he said. “It’s a free country. I think we’ve got a playbook that shows very clearly how to beat Stacey Abrams.”
The Abrams campaign did not reply to a request for comment. Kemp’s campaign did not reply.
