(PatriotWise.com) – Last week, Georgia Democrat Stacey Abrams said she will “likely” run for public office again.
In an interview on The Drew Barrymore Show, the two-time gubernatorial loser explained her political strategy as, “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.”
Abrams, who lost her first bid for Georgia Governor by a mere 55,000 votes in 2018, ran against Republican Brian Kemp again last year only to go down in flames, losing by nearly 300,000.
Despite her track record of losing, Abrams was still the beneficiary of millions in campaign contributions. When she ran against Kemp in 2018, the Abrams campaign raked in $27 million. And in 2002, the Abrams campaign amassed $113 million, only to lose to Kemp again by 7 points.
If Abrams is “likely” to run again, twice-burned donors will likely “try, try again,” opening their wallets to bankroll yet another Stacey Abrams defeat.
Axios reported in late December that despite bringing in $113 million in 2022, the Stacey Abrams campaign is in debt to the tune of $1 million.
Campaign manager Lauren Groh-Wargo told Axios that the “cavalcade of negative press and negative polls” hitting the Abrams campaign in the final months of the race hindered fundraising efforts. As a result, the campaign still owes vendors and has been forced to sell donor and voter databases to help pay them.
Groh-Wargo told Axios, Abrams didn’t just lose in 2022, “we got blown out.” Calling it “the most sub-optimal situation to be in,” she said the campaign will be dealing with the fallout “for some time.”
Meanwhile, the campaign’s 180 full-time staffers received their last paychecks on November 15, 2022, just one week after Abrams lost again to Republican Brian Kemp.
Groh-Wargo told Axios that some campaign staffers have said they don’t know how they will pay their rent in January, adding, “It was more than unfortunate. It was messed up.”
She said the campaign covered the cost of its staffers’ health benefits through November, explaining that they wanted to do their best “to make sure that help would be there for folks.”
Axios noted that Kemp’s campaign staff was not only paid through the month of November, but also received bonuses.
One disgruntled Abrams staffer told Axios that with $100 million raised, the campaign should have been able to pay staff until December.
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