Abrams group draws tons of small donations, and a few biggies, to raise $26 million quickly
The voting rights group that Stacey Abrams founded, Fair Fight, has raised more than $26 million since November 2018, with much of it coming from donors who give $10 or $25 at a time.
The group -- which is helping to fund the efforts of Democratic Party groups across the country to make sure people get to vote in November -- said it received more than 50,000 donations in the past few months.
A vast majority of that comes from outside Georgia because Abrams, a former state House Democratic leader and a potential presidential running mate, has national fundraising appeal and machinery.
Staffers talk about the small-dollar donations, as they did when she raised about $27 million -- much of it from tens of thousands of small donors -- when she ran for governor in 2018. She narrowly lost that contest to Brian Kemp, and Fair Fight was formed after the election.
However, there is a legal limit to how much donors can give to a candidate. There are no such limits for organizations such as Fair Fight’s political action committee, so the group has also drawn some big contributions to reach $26 million in such a short time. Below are some of the top donors:
- $5 million from former New York City Mayor and one-time presidential hopeful Michael Bloomberg.
- $1.029 million from Karla Jurvetson, a California physician, philanthropist and Democratic megadonor.
- $500,000 from Diana Blank of Montana, a philanthropist and former wife of Arthur Blank, the owner of Atlanta United and the Atlanta Falcons, and a co-founder of Home Depot.
- $500,000 from Oklahoma-based Stacy Schusterman, the chairwoman of Samson Energy, a deepwater drilling company, and a philanthropist.
- $500,000 from the Service Employees International Union.
- $350,000 from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union.
- $250,000 from Reid Hoffman of California, a billionaire partner in the technology company Greylock Partners and a co-founder of LinkedIn.
- $250,000 from Eric Laufer of New York, the founder of an renewable energy company, Laufer Wind.
- $250,000 from S. Donald Sussman of Florida, a philanthropist and founder of Paloma Funds and a Democratic megadonor.
About the Author
James Salzer has covered state government and politics in Georgia since 1990. He previously covered politics and government in Texas and Florida. He specializes in government finance, budgets, taxes, campaign finance, ethics and legislative history
