Stacey Abrams campaign reports $1.4 million in debt
Barnini Chakraborty
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A new financial disclosure report is shedding light on the scope of debt Democratic candidate Stacey Abrams’s campaign was saddled with in the final weeks of her failed gubernatorial run against Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp.
Abrams, known widely in Democratic circles as a fundraising juggernaut, reported more than $1.4 million in debt Monday to the state campaign finance commission. The report underscores the myriad problems that plagued her campaign and fueled her 8-point loss.
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Abrams’s campaign and leadership committee reported a combined $1.42 million of debt, though the bulk of it, $1.2 million, was owed by the leadership committee One Georgia to her media firm, AL Media. AL Media was responsible for creating ads and buying television and radio airtime.
Her manager, Lauren Groh-Wargo, told Axios a “cavalcade of negative press and negative polling” made raising funds difficult in the days leading up to the Nov. 8 general election.
The campaign’s 180 full-time staffers received their last paychecks on Nov. 15.
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“People have told me they have no idea how they’re going to pay their rent in January,” one former staffer, whose name was not released, told the outlet. “It was more than unfortunate. It was messed up.”
Kemp, Abrams’s political rival, has not yet filed his financial disclosures.