Stacey Abrams is trying to turn her more than $200,000 in debt into an advantage against her Democratic rival for governor.
The former House minority leader invoked the debt in criticizing her opponent, former state Rep. Stacey Evans, for backing an overhaul of the state's debt settlement model that she said would lead to higher fees for struggling Georgians.
“As somebody who has dealt with the burden of having financial obligations, I know firsthand the fear and anxiety that crushing debt can cause,” Abrams said this week.
“Reintroducing legislation that allows debt settlement lenders to more than quadruple their fees isn't just blatantly preying on Georgia families, it makes the mountain for these families to climb so much higher.”
The measure she’s targeting was introduced in 2015 by a bipartisan group that included Evans and several influential Republicans, including House Judiciary Committee chair Wendell Willard. It failed to gain any traction and did not reach a committee hearing.
The measure would have removed the fee cap on debt adjustment services, which is set at 7.5 percent of the amount paid monthly to creditors. It was staunchly opposed by consumer advocacy group Georgia Watch, which said it would "leave families worse off than if they never entered a settlement program in the first place."
Evans spokesman Seth Clark did not comment directly on the legislation. He said the attack is "yet another desperate attempt to misrepresent" her opponent's record and deflect from Abrams' support of other measures that Evans has assailed on the campaign trail.
Financial records reviewed by the AJC revealed Abrams, a tax attorney, owes about $54,000 to the Internal Revenue Service and has another $170,000 in credit card debt and student loans. Records show she's also loaned about $50,000 to her own campaign.
Evans and her top allies have not publicly attacked Abrams over her debt, but Republicans seem assured to try to turn it into a campaign issue questioning whether she has the financial chops to manage the state’s $26 billion budget.
Abrams, who has long said she’s on a payment plan to settle her debts, has sought this week to fortify herself from the attacks. She drew national attention this week with a column in Fortune addressing the debts.
In the column, Abrams writes that some were incurred while helping support her elderly parents and a young niece they raised.
She writes that “paying the bills for two households has taken its toll,” and that she will meet her obligations – “however slowly but surely.”
“Yes, we all still make money mistakes,” she wrote. “But they don’t have to be fatal to our dreams.”
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