Georgia voter turnout groups are closing, raising questions about Democratic strength

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ATLANTA (AP) — Two Georgia voter turnout groups credited with chipping away at Republicans' edge in the state announced Thursday they are closing down, raising questions about whether Democratic organizing can be sustained in Georgia, where breakthroughs have yet to overturn overall Republican control of the state.

Founded by Democrat Stacey Abrams in 2013 to register and turn out more nonwhite and young voters, the nonpartisan New Georgia Project, along with its affiliated New Georgia Project Action Fund, had been a political force. Their closure, along with legal losses sustained by another Abrams-founded organization — Fair Fight — raise questions about whether Abrams' model of voter organizing can be sustained. The groups are closing as Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff seeks reelection in 2026 and Democrats try to win a governor's race in Georgia for the first time since 1998.

“We recognize that the work of building a just and truthful world remains urgent,” directors said in a statement released by the Rev. James Woodall, board chair of the New Georgia Project Action Fund. “This moment calls for strong and courageous leaders to step forward, guided by principles and purpose.”

The groups registered tens of thousands of voters, building on Abrams' belief that moderation wasn't the path to power for Democrats in the Deep South. Instead, she sought to make steady voters out of less-engaged people who support progressive measures.

The strategy won plaudits in 2018, when Abrams narrowly lost the governor's race to Republican Brian Kemp. Then in 2020, Democrat Joe Biden won the state's presidential vote and a burst of enthusiasm elected Ossoff and Democrat Raphael Warnock to the U.S. Senate in a January 2021 runoff. That swung control of the upper chamber to their party.

New Georgia Project organizers, in purple and orange or lime green t-shirts, were familiar sights in inner-city Atlanta neighborhoods and rural Georgia towns, focusing on areas with low turnout. Jackson Ali said the New Georgia Project knocked on 4 million doors in 2020.

"For progressive politics, I haven’t seen anything yet that is going to replicate the amount of outreach, door knocks, conversations that New Georgia Project was able to achieve,” said Stephanie Jackson Ali, who was the organization’s policy director until she was laid off in July.

Abrams stepped down in 2017 and said she had no role with the groups thereafter. Warnock, a close Abrams ally and Baptist minister, was listed as the New Georgia Project’s CEO on corporate filings in 2017, 2018 and 2019.

Abrams has called the group's trouble “disappointing" but said she "will never stop believing in the mission of ensuring every Georgian can make their voice heard.”

Cliff Albright, a cofounder of Black Voters Matter, said Georgia has a robust ecosystem of organizations doing similar work. He cautioned against a “narrative” saying that without New Georgia Project “no work can be done in the state.” But Albright also said it has been challenging to persuade donors to give after 2020.

“What happened was people did not continue to invest in the work, post-2020, the way that they did during 2020," Albright said. "And so we’ve started to see the results of that disinvestment.”

Ruwa Romman, a Democratic state representative running for governor, has said she supports face-to-face organizing because it can unlock support for progressive causes.

Some Republicans also back an organizing strategy. GOP megadonor Kelly Loeffler, now the leader of the U.S. Small Business Administration, created a conservative voter registration group called Greater Georgia after her failed 2020 Senate bid.

Even with Abrams outraising Kemp in 2022 and with groups beating the bushes for voters, Abrams lost to Kemp by more than in 2018. Warnock did win reelection in a runoff that year, partly by projecting a more moderate image than Abrams. And 2024 was a step back for Democrats in the state. Vice President Kamala Harris won 75,000 more Democratic votes in Georgia than Biden, but Republican turnout for Trump increased by 200,000, powering his victory.

The New Georgia Project was weakened by questions about leadership and spending. The Georgia Ethics Commission levied a record-breaking $300,000 fine in January after finding the groups illegally did election work and fundraising for Abrams in 2018 while failing to register to take campaign contributions and failing to file campaign finance reports.

The fine was followed by multiple rounds of layoffs, including of some of the groups' employees who said they were targeted for trying to unionize.

Ethics Commission Executive Director David Emadi said the groups paid the fine and “fully complied with the order.”

Jackson Ali said it has been “heartbreaking” to watch the New Georgia Project struggle for funding.

“We just had such a large apparatus, that as soon as funding slowed, we couldn’t be sustained,” she said.

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Kramon is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.