MACON, Ga. — After raising more than $100 Million in her unsuccessful bid for governor, Stacey Abrams' campaign owes more than $1 million, according to a report from Axios.
Several unknown staffers spoke to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution about careless spending from the renting of a "Hype House" for TikTok videos to t-shirts and hoodie giveaways to young voters.
UGA Political Science Professor Charles Bullock says the campaign likely didn't expect contributions to drop off.
"When it became clear that she wasn't going to win, then contributors or expected contributors did not come through for her," Bullock said.
Joe Cusack, deputy general counsel at the Georgia Campaign Finance and Government Transparency Commission, says the commission has never seen this kind of debt from a candidate in Georgia before. He says it could take years for Stacey Abrams' campaign to pay off.
So, what happens now?
First thing to know-- all of the million dollar debt can't be forgiven.
If the campaign doesn't pay a vendor and the vendor "forgives" the debt, it's considered an in-kind contribution. There's a $7,600 limit for each donor per election.
"So say, somebody had contracted with a campaign or it was $50,000 worth of work and they ultimately did that $50,000 worth of work," Cusack said. "If they were to forgive... that would turn into an in-kind contribution, and that $50,000 would be over the contribution limits. And then the campaign would then be liable to pay a civil penalty based on the overage of what the contribution limits were."
Cusack says vendors can work with the campaign by creating a payment plan or the vendors could even sue.
As for who's on the hook, Cusack says it depends on who entered into the contract with the vendor-- Abrams herself or her campaign.
The campaign is incorporated so it operates like a legal corporate entity.
As for paying off the debt, Cusack says one option is for Abrams to ask donors to pay it off.
"In this case, the amount of debt is so large that you don't see people contributing to political candidates that have lost elections," Cusack said.
Abrams can also liquidate campaign assets-- like computers, vehicles, and even selling their email list of potential donors.
"They could really get it down to the bare bones and sell off everything," Cusack said.
The question many have--could the campaign face penalties for going into this much debt? The short answer is no.
"Really only public shame. That's that's basically nothing is gonna keep them from running for office. It's one of those things where they can carry this debt for really years on end until it's paid back or until it's discharged via the bankruptcy process or something along those lines," Cusack said.
Until that debt is paid off, Cusack says Abrams campaign will have to file a campaign disclosure report at the end of every year. So we'll know how quickly they're paying off the debt, in what way the campaign is paying it off, and who's contributing until that balance is cut down to zero.