Stacey Abrams’ campaign $1 million-plus in the red, despite raising $100 million on trail: Report

Georgia Democrat Stacey Abrams’ campaign owes more than $1 million to vendors following her second failed attempt to win the state’s governorship, according to a new report.

Despite raising more than $100 million during her campaign, Ms. Abrams, hailed by many in her party as an organizing and voter-mobilizing star, has left her 180 former campaign staffers in a lurch by cutting off their pay a week after the Nov. 8 election, according to the political news website Axios.

“People have told me they have no idea how they’re going to pay their rent in January,” a former staffer told Axios. “It was more than unfortunate. It was messed up.”

Another staffer told the outlet that they were surprised the campaign couldn’t fund staffers until December.

Axios confirmed the news with Ms. Abrams’ two-time campaign manager, Lauren Groh-Wargo.

By comparison, staff for Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, who handily defeated Ms. Abrams, were paid through November with bonuses, while officials for Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican Senate challenger Herschel Walker said that both campaign staffs will be paid through December, when their run-off election was decided. 

However, a staffer said that Ms. Abrams’ staff received higher pay than other statewide campaigns, and the team’s human resources department worked diligently to find former staffers new jobs.

Ms. Groh-Wargo said that the campaign’s financial troubles became apparent during the home stretch. Weekly ad buys were around $2 to $3 million in early October, but were reduced to $825,000 by the end of the month.

Ms. Groh-Wargo told Axios that bad press and bad polling hampered the campaign’s fundraising efforts as Election Day neared. Mr. Kemp would defeat Ms. Abrams by seven percentage points, even as Mr. Warnock was holding off Mr. Walker to claim a full, six-year Senate term.