“On the Holmes Front,” with Frank Holmes
Stacey Abrams lost her race for governor of Georgia to Republican Brian Kemp, but don’t worry about her future: She announced this week that she already has a new job… and it guarantees you’ll be seeing, and hearing, a lot more of her in the future.
Abrams told a daytime talk show host that her permanent “job” is running for office.
“So, what’s next? Are you gonna run again?” asked Drew Barrymore on Monday.
“I will likely run again,” Abrams answered. “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. And if it doesn’t work, you try again.”
“Yes! Yes! Yes!” Barrymore shouted before saying Abrams would take on “some tough men who kind of don’t always play fair.”
But that’s her “job,” said Abrams.
“Part of my job — I run for office, yes,” Abrams said. She added that another part comes from fighting “voter suppression” with her left-wing lobbying group, Fair Fight Action. “I want you to vote for me when you get in there,” she clarified.
"Election Denier Stacey Abrams: "Part of my job, I run for office, yes" pic.twitter.com/yWi1LZUkPr"
— Republican Women of Mercer County 💪🇺🇸 (@RWOMC) January 9, 2023
Election Denier and two-time loser Stacey Abrams: "I will likely run again." pic.twitter.com/YvpvXhkQBL
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) January 9, 2023
It’s easy to see why Abrams would find it tempting to keep running for office for a living: It’s made her filthy, stinking rich.
Stacey Abrams’ net worth came to $109,000 when she first ran for statewide office in 2018. Back then, she owed $96,000 in student loans, as well as being in arrears to the IRS and slumping in credit card debt. All told, she owed $233,000 to different creditors on election day 2018…but she paid off the whole amount in about a year.
By the end of 2021, Abrams’ net worth amounted to a whopping $3.17 million…and climbing.
In other words, Stacey Abrams’ personal net worth has increased a phenomenal 3,000 percent in a mere five years!
That’s a highly lucrative job, with a raise that even beats high inflation.
“I believe in success. I believe that every person should have the opportunity to thrive,” Abrams told CBS News. “And because I had three years where I was in the private sector, I leveraged all three years” and “done my best” to “be successful personally.”
Her personal success isn’t necessarily shared by her campaign or staffers. Her 2022 gubernatorial campaign hauled in $103 million, more than any candidate in the history of the Peach State…but she left the race $1 million in debt. Just this week, a judge ordered Abrams’ organization, Fair Fight Action, to pay the state $200,000 for filing a false lawsuit against the state claiming voter suppression. The group has given a law firm run by an Abrams crony $9.4 million.
And her campaign immediately cut the pay of 180 full-time staffers as soon as her campaign cratered into the ground, leaving them in the lurch.
But for Abrams? The election was golden and gave her the chance to “thrive.”
She ran, and lost, a close race in 2018, refused to concede, and ran a second time. Last November, Kemp destroyed Abrams by a massive eight percentage points
This time, Abrams admitted defeat—but she gave a strange concession speech. “Tonight, I am doing clearly what is the responsible thing, I am suspending my campaign for governor,” she said.
But campaigns aren’t suspended when you hold an election; they’re ended—that is, unless you’re running a permanent campaign. Now we know.
Abrams didn’t say what she would be running for. “I may no longer be seeking the office of governor,” she said last year, but “that doesn’t mean that I won’t stop running for a better Georgia.”
If she doesn’t run for governor a third time, it’s not clear how she would fit into the picture. Both of Georgia’s U.S. Senate seats are held by Democrats: Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff won Senate elections in 2020, and Warnock just defeated Republican Herschel Walker for reelection to a full term.
Ossoff isn’t up for reelection until 2026, even if she wanted to enter the primaries.
She served District 89 of the Georgia House of Representatives through 2017, a seat she gave up to run against Kemp the first time. Her successor, Bob Trammell, is a white male Democrat, a definite liability in his party—but Abrams has no interest in returning to such a low post.
She might move to a safe House district and run for U.S. Congress, especially if one of the Democrats in Georgia’s GOP-dominated congressional delegation retires. Democratic congressman David Scott is 77 years old; Sanford Bishop Jr. is 75; and doddering Hank Johnson is 68.
Or she could move into a Republican district and try to take on a sitting member of Congress. While her chances are slim, the fundraising opportunities would be massive—if that’s what you care about.
Then again, she could run for governor again. Brian Kemp, the Abrams vanquisher, is term-limited and can’t run for reelection again; an open seat might get Abrams’ juices flowing.
Or she could fail upward onto the presidential ticket of the next Democratic nominee. Biden tapped Vice President Kamala Harris after he promised to pick a black woman…but he put Stacey Abrams on the short list. If a different candidate—such as California Governor Gavin Newsom—clutches the nomination in 2024, he may tap Abrams for the same factors: race and sex.
Running for office has made Stacey Abrams a very wealthy woman. Why would a little thing like continual failure make her think about quitting?
Frank Holmes is a veteran journalist and an outspoken conservative that talks about the news that was in his weekly article, “On The Holmes Front.”