Fair Fight, the political advocacy organization founded by twice-failed gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, is running on fumes and facing steep cuts as part of a "restructuring" that seeks to save it from complete failure. Described as "a blow" to the Abrams-founded organization by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the emergency austerity measures include sweeping cuts to staff and activities.
All told, according to the AJC, Fair Fight "faces $2.5 million in debt with only $1.9 million in cash in the bank." That fiscal quandary means that its "voting rights, media, fundraising and grassroots organizing efforts will be slashed, and it will pare back its use of outside consultants and vendors." In addition, "[s]ome 20 employees — or 75% of the staff — will be cut."
That is, the organization launched by Abrams following her first of two defeats to Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, one that "quickly became a fundraising behemoth with national ambitions" and "collected more than $100 million over its first three years" has essentially withered on the vine.
Fair Fight's board blamed "rising litigation costs and slowing fundraising" according to the AJC's report on its economic woes.
"While we are disappointed by these realities, we are not discouraged," Fair Fight Board Chair Salena Jegede maintained to the AJC. Still, she acknowledged the "serious funding deficit" that makes the organization's "current trajectory unsustainable."
Part of the financial drag on Fair Fight came "as it waged yearslong — and losing — voting rights battles in federal court" at a cost of more than $25 in legal fees from 2021 to 2022" according to the AJC. More than $9 million of that total, the report notes, "went to a small law firm headed by Abrams' onetime gubernatorial campaign chairwoman." Another setback came in 2023 when "Fair Fight Action — the group's political arm — and other plaintiffs were ordered to repay the state $231,000 after it lost a lawsuit days after the 2018 election challenging Georgia's voter registration and absentee ballot process."
It seems, much like its founder Stacey Abrams, Fair Fight is good at losing. Repeatedly.
