Senate committee may soon open investigation into Stacey Abrams' ties to voting rights group
Georgia lawmakers could approve an investigation into former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams.
They would be looking into ties to a voting rights group the State Ethics Commission fined
Republicans say it's about tracking dark money, while Democrats say it's just politics.
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<
The Senate Special Investigative Committee continues to look into allegations of misconduct by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.
Now, the Senate is ready to expand that committee's investigative powers so it can also look into Abrams and her ties with the New Georgia Project.
Athens republican State Sen. Bill Cowsert said he's just trying to follow the alleged dark money.
[DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks]
'Not saying that she did anything inappropriate at all. Just, she was connected with those organizations and that's where the money was being funneled, dark money essentially,' Cowsert told Action News Jax's Atlanta state WSB-TV.
In January, the New Georgia Project admitted to 16 violations of Georgia's campaign finance laws and the state ethics commission hit it with a record $300,000 fine.
Abrams founded that group but left it 12 years ago.
'This is what happens in Congress. Congress wastes a lot of time on investigations that don't wind up with anything productive,' state Sen. Jason Esteves said.
That led Democrats like Esteves to accuse that committee of conducting a politically motivated witch hunt.
'It's election year politics. These are folks who are preparing to run for statewide office next year and they see this as a way to make headlines,' Esteves told Elliot.
Cowsert insists this isn't about Abrams, it's about campaign money.
'Allegedly, the New Georgia Project was opening campaign field offices, doing social media advocating, had literature advocating for Stacey Abrams and other candidates, and that is not permissible,' Cowsert said.
*WSB-TV Atlanta contributed to this report
Read: Georgia teen accepted to 155 colleges in all 50 states totaling $6 million in scholarships
Read: Florida attorney general issues warning to Jacksonville mayor regard support on city new Immigration policy
Read: Popular Fleming Island restaurant gets in trouble with Clay County after customer dines with dog
[SIGN UP: click here]
Click here to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here to stream Action News Jax live.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
39 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Republicans focus on trans athletes in their early attacks against Jon Ossoff in Georgia
In the early stages of the campaign, Republicans seeking to unseat Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff in one of the key races of the 2026 midterm elections are leaning heavily into attacks over transgender athletes in women's sports. Two GOP-aligned groups launched ads on the issue in recent weeks. And GOP Rep. Buddy Carter hit the airwaves with an ad prodding Ossoff on the issue soon after launching his campaign. Republican candidates and campaigns have frequently leaned on culture war issues in recent years as a way to excite the base and frame Democrats as out of touch, particularly in red-leaning states. And they're even more emboldened after President Donald Trump bombarded then-Vice President Kamala Harris with an onslaught of ads that attacked her support for transgender people during the 2024 election. But while Democrats are gearing up for a difficult re-election fight for Ossoff in a state Trump won narrowly in 2024, they think the issue will be drowned out by voters' concerns about the economy, particularly Trump's handling of it. Even so, it's an issue for which Democrats lack a consensus about how to respond to GOP broadsides, as prominent members of the party grapple with whether to embrace protecting the transgender community as part of their values, deflect the question, or come out against including transgender athletes in women's sports. Ossoff is the only Democratic incumbent defending a seat in a state Trump won last year, making him far-and-away the top target for Senate Republicans. Still, some Republicans admit that Ossoff will be difficult to beat, particularly now that Gov. Brian Kemp decided not to seek the seat. The early Republican criticism of Ossoff points to the Democratic senator's vote on legislation in February that would make it a Title IX violation (jeopardizing federal education funding) for states to allow transgender women and girls to participate in female sports. The bill failed to get the 60 votes it needed to advance in the Senate. One Nation, the nonprofit aligned with Senate Republicans' main super PAC, has spent at least $400,000 airing an ad reminiscent of a key tagline from one of Trump's anti-Harris ads from last year: 'Man-to-man defense isn't woke enough for Ossoff, he's playing for they/them.' Carter's opening salvo of ads included a spot touting the congressman's MAGA credentials while a person purporting to be a transgender woman holds sports trophies and stands in front of a transgender pride flag talking about how Ossoff has been an ally to the community. Asked about the GOP criticism of that vote, Ossoff campaign communications director Ellie Dougherty told NBC News in a statement that 'American parents don't need federal bureaucrats confirming our children's genitalia,' a reference to how a state might enforce the mandate in the Republican bill. Scott Paradise, who managed Republican Herschel Walker's losing Senate campaign in 2022, told NBC News that Ossoff's first Senate run in 2020 provided a 'perfect storm' that allowed Ossoff to position himself as a 'centrist' by narrowing his focus to 'bread-and-butter issues.' 'If he's talking about the economy or he's talking about moments where he has stood with the right — whether it's Middle East, to the extent he has on immigration — it's easier for him to muddy the waters. But this is such a black-and-white issue in a center-right state' that allows Republicans to try to frame him as out of step, Paradise said. Polling broadly shows the American public doesn't support transgender women playing in female sports. Last month's NBC News Stay Tuned Poll, powered by SurveyMonkey found that 75% opposed it and 25% supported it. Other national polling has found similar trends. That's one reason why Trump's campaign focused heavily on the issue in ads, arguing that Harris was outside the mainstream and pointing to her past support for gender-affirming treatments for prison inmates. After the election, Democrats have disagreed over whether the party's position on transgender rights, particularly in women's sports, cost them electorally. Asked about the attacks last month during an interview on "Political Breakfast," a podcast hosted by Georgia's public radio affiliate, Ossoff said the big early spending is a signal to him that "demonstrates the national GOP understands the strength that I'll be bringing to this re-election campaign." The Democrat called Republicans, particularly GOP political consultants, "obsessed and preoccupied with this issue." Thinking ahead about "top of mind" issues for voters in 2026, Ossoff added, will it be "whether or not federal bureaucrats are investigating the sexual biology of adolescent athletes? I don't think so," he added. Amy Morton, a Democratic strategist in Georgia, elaborated that she believes the midterms will instead be a "referendum on the economy" and Trump's handling of it, emphasizing the Democratic attacks on the GOP's broad policy bill that's working its way through Congress. "They're going to continue to lean into that issue because they don't want to talk about the issues that are really impacting Georgians," she said, adding, "They made a strategic decision to wrap their arms around Donald Trump so there won't be a degree of separation between his failure as an executive and their failure." A Democratic strategist who worked on Sen. Raphael Warnock's successful re-election in Georgia in 2022 added that, like their former boss, Ossoff's high-profile elections have helped to define him in the state, making them skeptical that a GOP attempt to brand him as extreme will stick. They added that while Warnock's 2022 Republican opponent, Herschel Walker, leaned heavily on social issues during his unsuccessful bid, Kemp won comfortably with a very different message on the same ballot, showing how a campaign can focus on the issues it wants and leave others to the side. "You saw Brian Kemp run an extremely disciplined race on the economy. You were hard-pressed to get Kemp on the record about abortion in 2022 — the man was laser-focused on small businesses, jobs and the economy. That was the consistent message you heard out of Brian Kemp. You compare that to Herschel Walker and, you can do the math: 300,000 votes," the Democrat said. But the economy was also a top issue in the 2024 election, and Trump and the Republican Party still managed to turn their attacks on trans issues into a memorable tagline that stuck with some voters. That's why one national Republican strategist told NBC News that the attack isn't a "replacement" for a cogent economic argument, but "part of the equation." 'It's an issue that obviously had a massive impact in 2024. The Trump campaign's 'Harris is for they/them' ad is one of the greatest ads of our generation in that it's so simple and was so effective,' the strategist said. Ads about transgender participants in women's sports can run "on top of: Oh, he also voted to help ensure that illegal immigrants get government-paid health care and he voted against the Laken Riley amendment in 2024 before it was convenient," the strategist added. While the transgender sports attacks are drawing headlines, both sides have been running ads focused on spending in Washington, too. Democrats have attacked the GOP's policy bill working its way through Washington, and Republicans hit Ossoff for backing former President Joe Biden's signature spending bill in 2022. Tharon Johnson, a Georgia Democratic strategist who worked for Biden's 2020 campaign in the state, agreed that Republicans are "going to be hard-pressed to make Jon Ossoff into this radical," in part because of his work both in office and on the campaign trail. And while he believes the situation Harris found herself in last year isn't the same one Ossoff finds himself in now, he said Democrats can still draw a lesson from it: "Respond sooner, and more effectively." So far, Ossoff's response has been to stay focused on the economy and try to frame the debate as about local control. This article was originally published on
Yahoo
40 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Rep. Sarah McBride Says Attacks on Her Gender Identity Show Jealousy of 'Bullies': 'Hurt People Hurt People' (Exclusive)
Sarah McBride made history by becoming the first openly transgender member of the House of Representatives Her congressional campaign is the subject of the new documentary State of Firsts The film premiered June 7 at the Tribeca FestivalRep. Sarah McBride refuses to let criticism bog her down. The Delaware congresswoman made history in November 2024 when she became the first openly transgender person elected to the House of Representatives. However, her boundary-breaking win also came with hate, discrimination and deliberate misgendering by critics and colleagues. McBride, whose trailblazing campaign is the subject of the new documentary State of Firsts, which premiered June 7 at the Tribeca Festival and will screen through June 11, tells PEOPLE that "it's not always easy" to face the critics. "It is hard and it gets to me," she says, adding, "I'm not new to hate." "Every job I've ever had, I've had death threats," says McBride, who was a state senator and political advocate prior to joining Congress. "I'm not new to feeling out there and vulnerable." The way McBride sees it, attacks on her gender identity aren't really about her. "When people try to diminish me or impugn my dignity, it says a lot more about them than it does me," she says. "I truly believe that hurt people hurt people." Since her first term in Congress began in January, McBride has been targeted by a bathroom bill from Rep. Nancy Mace or South Carolina — which bans transgender people from using restrooms that don't correspond with their sex at birth — and was intentionally and repeatedly misgendered by Texas Rep. Keith Self during a hearing. Both moments are included in State of Firsts, which features a clip of Mace responding to a reporter who asks if her bathroom resolution is linked to McBride's arrival in Congress. "Yes, and absolutely and then some," Mace replies. McBride says in the documentary that she didn't realize the bathroom issue would blow up, but soon realized, "There will be members who will confront me in the women's restroom to have a viral moment." She adds that she knew she would be targeted more as her campaign progressed, and once Republicans maintained control of the House after the 2024 election, she started to think, "They're going to try to ban me from the restroom." While speaking with PEOPLE, McBride says she's undeterred by such attacks. "Everyone deals with something about themselves that society tells them they should be ashamed of or that they should hide," she says. "The thing about so many of us who live openly and authentically is we have taken that thing that society has told us we should hide, and we've not only accepted it, but in many cases we are walking forward from a place of pride in it." That confidence, McBride says, is something her critics want for themselves. "The bullies see that power, they see that individual agency in conquering our own fears and our own insecurities, and they're jealous of it," McBride tells PEOPLE. "I am reminded in those moments that I am powerful just by being." Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. The congresswoman even has kind words for her detractors, sharing a hopeful message for the people who've come after her. "I hope that those who are not summoning the best versions of themselves, that they find healing, that they find courage, that they find love, and that they find a home within themselves and in this world that they so clearly yearn for," she says. State of Firsts director Chase Joynt filmed McBride in the days before, during and after her historic campaign, capturing highs like the night she won her election, but also difficult moments like blatant disrespect from her colleagues in Washington and backlash from the trans community when she agreed to follow the Capitol's bathroom policy. In a statement included in the State of Firsts' press notes, Joynt said, "We could not have anticipated the force with which Sarah herself would become the central target of transphobic assaults in the rise of Trump's second presidency." McBride, who recently marked 100 days in office, tells PEOPLE that despite the hurdles she faced in the first few weeks and months as a Congresswoman, she's "confident" and "determined" — and her bullies have "moved on." "They realized that I'm not gonna play their game," she says. Read the original article on People
Yahoo
40 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump backs arrest of California governor amid LA protest strains
US President Donald Trump said Monday it would be "great" if California Governor Gavin Newsom was arrested, in an extraordinary threat as the two men sparred over protests in Los Angeles. Republican Trump, 78, deployed the National Guard in America's second city on Saturday after clashes erupted over immigration raids -- but he did not seek the Democratic governor's consent, the first time a US president has taken such an action in 60 years. As temperatures rose, Newsom, 57, then dared Trump's border czar Tom Homan over the weekend to arrest him, after Homan said the governor and LA Mayor Karen Bass could face federal charges of trying to impede immigration agents. "I would do it if I were Tom. I think it's great," Trump told reporters when asked if Homan should arrest Newsom, as the Republican president arrived on his Marine One helicopter at the White House. "Gavin likes the publicity, but I think it would be a great thing." Trump said Newsom, who has been widely tipped as a possible 2028 presidential candidate, had "done a terrible job" in curbing the Los Angeles clashes. "Look, I like Gavin Newsom, he's a nice guy -- but he's grossly incompetent, everybody knows," Trump said. Trump later said that "I don't want a civil war," but that "civil war would happen if you left it to people like him." Newsom has bitterly accused Trump of manufacturing the crisis for political gain, saying that local law authorities could have handled the protests without the National Guard. On Sunday, he blasted border chief Homan, telling MSNBC: "Come after me, arrest me, let's just get it over with, tough guy." The Democrat then branded Trump as "dictatorial" later Monday after the Trump administration deployed 700 active-duty Marines to Los Angeles. dk/jgc
