A pair of voting rights advocacy groups founded by Comgresswoman Stacey Abrams of Georgia will have to fork over $300,000 after admitting that they illegally supported her gubernatorial campaign in 2018. 

The fine is the largest ever imposed by a state commission over a campaign finance case, the Georgia State Ethics Commission said on Wednesday. 

The historic fine follows a years-long investigation into the New George Project, and its fundraising arm, the New Georgia Project Action Fund, which were founded by Ms. Abrams in 2013 as part of an effort to register young and minority voters. 

Ms. Abrams was seen as a rising Democratic star and garnered national press attention for her efforts. She delivered the Democratic response to President Trump’s State of the Union address in 2019 and during the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries was promoted as a possible running mate for President Biden. She twice lost to Brian Kemp, in 2018 and 2022, in contests for governor.

Under federal law, nonprofit, tax-exempt charities are prohibited from campaigning for political candidates. The commission concluded, however, that the group failed to disclose an estimated $4.2 million in contributions and $3.2 million in expenditures that were funneled toward Ms. Abram’s unsuccessful 2018 campaign and other Democratic candidates during the election cycle. The group also failed to disclose $646,000 in contributions and $174,000 in expenditures while advocating for a ballot initiative in 2019. 

The voting rights organization ultimately admitted to violating 16 campaign finance laws, including failing to register as a political committee and failing to disclose millions of political contributions and expenditures. 

“This represents the largest and most significant instance of an organization illegally influencing our statewide elections in Georgia that we have ever discovered, and I believe that this sends a clear message to both the public and potential bad actors moving forward that we will hold you accountable,” executive director of Georgia’s state ethics commission, David Emadi, stated. 

The organization had denied any wrongdoing for years, arguing that the investigation was a politically driven “fishing expedition.”  By agreeing to the consent order and paying the six-figure fine, however, the group acknowledges that it broke the law. 

Counsel for the New Georgia Project has said that their clients “accept this outcome” but are “eager to turn the page” and return their attention to “civically engage and register Black, brown, and young voters in Georgia.”

After Ms. Abrams stepped down as head of the organization in 2017, a Georgia senator, Raphael Warnock, who was a confidant of Ms. Abrams and a Baptist Minister, took over. He remained at the helm of the organization until 2019 and has denied any knowledge of the group’s fraudulent activities. Mr. Emadi has said that the investigation did not come up with any evidence pointing to Mr. Warnock being involved in the wrongdoing.