When Democrat Stacey Abrams first ran for governor of Georgia in 2018, her dull personal finances and a strong IRS bill gave Republicans food to question how she could manage a state budget. when he struggled with his own debts.
As she throws a second candidacy for governor this year, this is no longer a problem.
Abrams now says it is worth $ 3.17 million, according to state revelations presented in March. That compares to a net worth of $ 109,000 when it first ran four years ago.
Her rapid rise to the status of millionaire corresponds to her rise in national politics. Since his 2018 defeat to Republican Brian Kemp, Abrams has become a leading voting rights activist. It was considered a potential President Joe Biden’s teammate and is widely accredited organize voters in Georgia to help him become the first Democrat to lead the state in the presidential election in 28 years. Along the way, he has earned $ 6 million, mostly driven by $ 5 million in payments for books and speeches.
This wealth has exposed him to a different line of criticism from Republicans, who hope to portray Abrams this year as an elitist out of touch with the average Georgian. Garrison Douglas, a spokesman for the National Republican Party, accused Abrams of using his campaign “as a platform for his own financial gain.” During a rally in the state last month, former President Donald Trump beat her for “living in these magnificent multimillion-dollar homes.”
Abrams has not bought a house for more than a million dollars, and Trump spends much of his year living in his luxurious Mar-a-Lago resort, which Forbes valued at the end of last year at about $ 300 million. millions of dollars. Leading Republicans running for governor – incumbent Brian Kemp and challenger David Perdue – are far richer than she is.
In an interview, Abrams said it was ironic that Republicans criticized his financial success, which the party often praises as a result of hard work.
“It’s remarkable to me that success is now demonized by Republicans,” he said. “I believe in success. I believe that every person should have the opportunity to thrive. And since I had three years in the private sector, I took advantage of the three years and in that time just succeeding personally, but doing all you can to help Georgians. “
Many politicians build their wealth after reaching a high position. This is not the case with Abrams, whose loss raised her to an unusual level of celebrity for someone whose highest position to date is the leader of the minority in the Georgian House of Representatives. His income rose to $ 3.65 million before announcing his second candidacy for governor.
Seth Bringman, spokesman for the Abrams campaign, said he delivered 37 paid speeches in 2021, including a 12-stop fall tour with stand-alone appearances. He has written, co-written or re-edited six books since 2019, with another re-edition on the way later this year.
Abrams also received more than $ 700,000 over three years as executive director of the Southern Economic Advancement Project, a subsidiary of the Roosevelt Institute that seeks to improve economic equity in the South. Abrams has not reported any income from Fair Fight Action, the voting rights group he founded and previously chaired.
Abrams, who last year published a business book with a longtime business partner, also reports on investments in several companies. Some are long-standing holdings, such as Now Account Network Corp., which finances businesses by buying invoices. Abrams joined the board in November on Heliogen, a California-based company that seeks to use sunlight to concentrate heat for industrial processes, power generation and hydrogen fuel production. Abrams reported $ 65,000 in Heliogen stock.
Kemp has a net worth of about $ 8.5 million, with assets primarily in real estate that he developed before running for governor. Perdue is even richer as he reports a net worth of $ 50 million after a career in which he was CEO of corporations such as Dollar General and Reebok. Kemp had revenues of $ 551,000 in 2021, while Perdue had revenues of $ 9.3 million.
Kemp criticized Abrams in 2018 for owing $ 54,000 to the IRS, self-employment taxes he failed to pay on time. Abrams then said he skipped payments because his parents needed financial help to raise a granddaughter and medical bills.
“You can delay payments from the IRS. You can’t delay cancer treatments,” Abrams said at the time.
Abrams also had $ 96,000 in student loan debt and $ 83,000 in accumulated credit card debt in 2018. It only had a positive net worth because a publisher had paid a $ 150,000 advance on his first nonfiction book. In that book, “Minority Leader,” Abrams wrote that he borrowed it at a time when “my understanding of personal finance barely scratched the surface.”
He paid off his IRS debt, student loans and credit card debt in 2019. When he first ran for governor, Abrams had a retirement account of less than $ 5,000. He now has more than $ 725,000 in stock and bonds.
As his financial image has improved, Abrams has also moved from his old townhouse to a larger new home.
The $ 975,000 property he bought outside the city limits of Atlanta near Emory University in 2020 is funded by a $ 760,000 mortgage, according to Abrams’ financial disclosure. He bought his parents a $ 370,000, 3,300-square-foot home in the suburbs of Atlanta in 2019, with more than $ 280,000 in a mortgage, records and revelations.
It is unclear how much Abrams is paying in taxes or how much he is donating to charity, although his assets include $ 560,000 set aside in a “tax account.” Bringman said Abrams would release his returns later this year after filing his 2021 taxes.
Kemp spokesman Tate Mitchell said the incumbent believes the state’s financial disclosure is sufficient, but will provide more documentation later “if necessary.” Perdue spokeswoman Jenni Sweat said Perdue filled out state and federal disclosure forms and has been “transparent about her finances,” but did not respond directly if she would publish her tax returns.
Marko Klasnja, a professor at Georgetown University who has studied the causes and consequences of politicians’ wealth, said that “in the US, people don’t care about wealth per se, and I don’t think they think it’s negative. necessarily. “
“I don’t think this hurts Abrams as much, and I think if people know that this comes from things like book deals, they’ll think of it differently than, ‘He’s lining his pockets because he’s on the boards. administration of corporations and things like that ‘”.
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