Stacey Abrams' failed Georgia gubernatorial campaign reportedly spent money on things such as renting a house to film TikTok videos, according to a Tuesday report from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The report said that the Abrams campaign's expenses included the rental of a five-bedroom home in the Piedmont section of Atlanta to produce videos for TikTok. The home, which went largely unused during the campaign, now is available for $12,500 per month. The campaign also paid for "pop-up shops" and a "swag truck" to distribute merchandise in an effort to win over younger voters.
Axios reported Monday that the campaign blew through more than $100 million in the unsuccessful race against Republican incumbent Gov. Brian Kemp, forcing it to cut off paying staffers just a week after the general election last month.
"People have told me they have no idea how they're going to pay their rent in January," one former staffer told Axios in its report. "It was more than unfortunate. It was messed up."
Campaign Manager Lauren Groh-Wargo confirmed to Axios that vendors are still owed $1 million for their services during the race and will have to be paid off "over time," saying that a "cavalcade of negative press and negative polling" made fundraising difficult toward the end of the contest.
"We did not just lose; we got blown out," she told the news outlet. "It was the most suboptimal situation to be in. And we will be dealing with that situation for some time."
The AJC reported the campaign is now attempting to sell its voter lists to make up for the deficit.
Some staffers complained to the newspaper that the spending, including large amounts on polling, lacked a strategy and appeared to be "careless and costly."
"It's incredibly bad planning, and it shows where their values are at," a senior Democratic official told the paper of the spending, which will come into finer detail when financial disclosures are due in January. "You can't look up one day and realize you can't pay the bills."
According to the report, the campaign decided at the end to cut around half of its planned television advertising buys during the last two weeks of the race, spending less that $1 million during that time. Kemp ramped his television time up to $3 million in the last week alone.
"They probably thought they could keep raising money all the way through November," one former staffer said told the newspaper. "And they misplayed that badly."
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