Once one of the most influential political groups in the South, the New Georgia Project is shutting down this week, marking a stunning fall for an organization that pushed to advance Democratic causes for more than a decade.
The New Georgia Project’s board of directors said in a statement Thursday that the organization and an affiliated action fund are both dissolving but encouraged others to continue supporting “values of justice, integrity and equity” that guided their work.
“As we close this chapter, we recognize that the work of building a just and truthful world remains urgent,” the statement read. “This moment calls for strong and courageous leaders to step forward, guided by principle and purpose.”
Founded in 2013 by two-time gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams and later championed by U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, the group once boasted a multimillion-dollar budget, a sprawling field team and an ambitious mission “to build power for long-term progressive change.”
It was credited with registering tens of thousands of left-leaning voters who helped turn Georgia into a political battleground. And in 2020, the group’s canvassers knocked on more than 4 million doors, including roughly 1 million during the nine-week runoff that ended with Democratic victories that flipped the U.S. Senate.
But the New Georgia Project played a diminished role in last year’s election as the organization’s internal problems mounted. Organizers said the group knocked on fewer than 1 million doors in the last cycle.
Credit: Alyssa Pointer
Credit: Alyssa Pointer
Signs of trouble have mounted for months. The group has long been hobbled by internal turmoil, fundraising struggles and mounting legal problems leading to an exodus of key staffers in the run-up to last year’s election.
In January, it agreed to pay a record $300,000 fine for violating Georgia campaign finance laws after admitting to illegally aiding Abrams’ 2018 gubernatorial bid by spending millions to support her campaign without proper registration or reporting. Ethics officials say the fine has been paid in full.
The organization’s director, Francys Johnson, stepped down months ago. And a Georgia Senate committee announced plans to investigate the group and its ties to Abrams.
Once, the group maintained an average of 150 staffers that swelled to 400 canvassers during elections. In recent weeks, only a skeletal staff remained after at least three rounds of layoffs since the 2024 election.
Credit: Jason Getz/AJC
Credit: Jason Getz/AJC
The Rev. James Woodall, who chairs the New Georgia Project Action Fund’s board, recently said leaders were “actively assessing the organization’s long-term vitality.” On Thursday, he confirmed the group’s decision to cease operations.
The cuts had long since gutted the project’s mission to build a statewide “multiracial, multigenerational, cross-class movement” aimed at expanding Medicaid, raising Georgia’s minimum wage, overturning abortion limits and fighting voting measures it deemed restrictive.
In a sign of its diminished status, both Abrams and Warnock had distanced themselves from its current operations. Abrams left the group she started in 2017, while Warnock stepped down as chair before his 2020 Senate bid.
Still, the group’s demise tears a hole in the Georgia Democratic infrastructure. Stephanie Jackson Ali, who joined the group in 2021 and served as its policy director until she was laid off in July, said she’s concerned that void won’t be filled by next year’s midterm, when U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff is up for reelection and other statewide offices are on the ballot.
“Again and again, we’ve seen candidates and parties fail to spend enough on the ground game. And that part is going to be missing in the midterms if folks don’t wise up,” she said.
“There are other organizations capable of picking up this work,” Jackson Ali added. “You have to be there on the ground in these communities. Races are won on conversations.”
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