Georgia Republicans renew scrutiny of Stacey Abram's New Georgia Project as questions grow over election oversight
Nearly seven years after allegations first emerged about the New Georgia Project's ties to Stacey Abrams' 2018 gubernatorial campaign, Georgia Republicans are reviving scrutiny of the organization through a state Senate investigative committee.
It's unclear what the committee is specifically looking into.
In an interview with CBS News Atlanta, Greg Dolezal, a Republican state senator and current candidate for lieutenant governor, defended the Senate's ongoing inquiry as a matter of "election integrity" and legislative reform, not criminal prosecution.
The comments come following the U.S. Supreme Court's recent ruling in Louisiana v. Callais, which Georgia Republicans argue could justify another round of redistricting in the state ahead of 2028.
Sen. Dolezal was one of the first Republicans to publicly push Gov. Brian Kemp to call a special legislative session to redraw maps.
Dolezal's remarks also follow criticism from voting rights advocates and Democratic activists who argue that reopening scrutiny around the New Georgia Project risks reinforcing distrust among Black voters and civic action groups.
What is the New Georgia Project case?
The controversy centers on campaign finance violations tied to the New Georgia Project, an organization devoted to voter registration and civic engagement founded by Abrams.
In 2024, the Georgia State Ethics Commission fined the organization and an affiliated committee a record $300,000 after investigators concluded the groups failed to properly disclose campaign-related spending during the 2018 election cycle. The commission said the organizations operated in ways that effectively supported Abrams' gubernatorial campaign without complying with state disclosure requirements.
The New Georgia Project explicitly admitted to 16 violations of state campaign finance laws as part of their settlement.
Dolezal told CBS News Atlanta that the Senate committee's work is separate from the State Ethics Commission's original enforcement action.
"This committee can't arrest anybody. This committee can't charge anyone," Dolezal said, arguing that the committee's purpose is to recommend changes to state law and oversight procedures.
According to Dolezal, lawmakers are now examining whether illegal coordination may have occurred between the organization and Abrams' campaign — an issue he said was not fully resolved during the Ethics Commission proceedings.
However, Dolezal acknowledged that the committee has not yet uncovered any new evidence.
"We have subpoenaed these witnesses. We have not heard from these witnesses yet," he said. "So no, we've not uncovered any new information."
Dolezal also said Abrams has been subpoenaed strictly as a witness, not as a criminal target.
Why the issue is resurfacing now
The renewed scrutiny arrives during a politically sensitive moment in Georgia.
Republicans are simultaneously considering new congressional and legislative maps after the Supreme Court's recent ruling on race-conscious redistricting, while Democrats and civil rights advocates warn the efforts could reduce Black political influence in metro Atlanta.
Dolezal argued the Supreme Court made clear that "racial gerrymandering" is unconstitutional and said Georgia lawmakers were previously forced by federal courts to draw majority-Black districts in ways that emphasized race over traditional districting principles.
Critics counter that mid-decade redistricting efforts — combined with renewed investigations into prominent Democratic-aligned voter mobilization groups — create the appearance of selective political scrutiny.
When asked directly whether these actions could disproportionately affect Black political participation, Dolezal rejected that characterization.
"We are not investigating a voter mobilization group," he said. "We are investigating a group that has been fined the largest amount in the state of Georgia history for violating Georgia election law."
Still, the political backdrop surrounding the investigation remains difficult to ignore.
The New Georgia Project became nationally known for its voter registration efforts among Black, young and first-time voters during a period when Georgia shifted from reliably Republican to one of the nation's most competitive battleground states.
Abrams narrowly lost the 2018 governor's race to current Gov. Brian Kemp before helping build Democratic turnout infrastructure that contributed to Democratic victories in Georgia's 2020 Senate runoffs and President Joe Biden's narrow win in the state that same year.
Questions about selective enforcement
One of the central concerns raised by critics is whether ethics enforcement in Georgia is applied evenly across the political spectrum.
During the interview, CBS News Atlanta asked Dolezal whether the renewed focus on the New Georgia Project could contribute to perceptions of selective scrutiny.
Dolezal acknowledged Republicans have also faced ethics penalties in Georgia and argued the state's enforcement process is open to anyone who files a complaint.
"I bet you that there's as many, if not more Republicans that get fined than Democrats," he said, adding that he believes the New Georgia Project case involved unusually serious violations.
The senator also defended the committee's broader investigative powers, arguing the legislature should play a larger oversight role in examining election-related issues and other state matters.
At the same time, civil rights advocates have warned that highly publicized investigations into voting-rights-aligned organizations can create a chilling effect, even absent criminal charges.
Those concerns have become more pronounced as national battles over voting access, campaign finance and redistricting increasingly converge in Georgia — a state likely to remain central to national elections through 2028 and beyond.
What happens next?
According to the Georgia Recorder, Abrams responded to her subpoena, saying, "It is not lost on me that I am being summoned days after the U.S. Supreme Court gutted protections for minority voting power and after I testified against the unconscionable voter suppression process unfolding across several Southern states. Building voting power, especially among minority communities, is why I started leading voter registration campaigns in Georgia over 30 years ago, and why we remain so threatening to those currently in office."
CBS News Atlanta reached out to Stacey Abrams and Nsè Ufot, the former CEO of the New Georgia Project. Both were named in the subpoena, along with Lauren Groh-Wargo.
As of publication, Abrams had not responded, and Ufot declined to comment on the record.
The Senate Special Committee on Investigations is expected to continue gathering testimony related to the New Georgia Project and other election-related matters in the coming months.
Dolezal said the committee itself is temporary and will dissolve at the end of the current biennial legislative cycle unless lawmakers create a permanent investigative body.
For now, the debate surrounding the committee's work reflects a broader political reality in Georgia: nearly every conversation about election law, voting access or campaign finance is increasingly viewed through the lens of race, power and partisan trust - and distrust.
And with Georgia expected to remain one of the country's most fiercely contested battlegrounds, those debates are unlikely to fade anytime soon.