Abrams Statement on Subpoena in Georgia Senate’s Sham Hearing

ATLANTA, GA — In response to a subpoena from the Republican-run Georgia Senate Special Committee on Investigations, Stacey Abrams made the following statement:

“Today, the Georgia State Senate delivered a subpoena for me to testify in a partisan, performative hearing designed to intimidate and disarm voting rights advocates across Georgia and the nation. Despite the hollow, cynical intent, I will indeed do so on a mutually agreeable date.

“It is not lost on me that I am being summoned days after the U.S. Supreme Court gutted protections for minority voting power and after I testified against the unconscionable voter suppression process unfolding across several Southern states. Building voting power, especially among minority communities, is why I started leading voter registration campaigns in Georgia over 30 years ago, and why we remain so threatening to those currently in office.

“Let me be clear from the start: They know I have done nothing wrong, but this is not a search for truth. It is a desperate distraction from the ongoing erosion of democracy at the hands of partisan state leaders.

“At their hearing, I will offer testimony on the urgent harms facing the right to vote, decry this effort as part of a coordinated scheme to diminish minority voices, and question the insistence on controlling the outcome of elections by diminishing the agency of voters. 

“Georgia Republicans think this spectacle will help them score political points, but they will fail because they underestimate the transparency of their cowardice.

“Republicans in the Georgia State Senate have been using this investigatory committee to target political opponents, like their federal counterparts are doing in Washington. Their objective is obvious: to manipulate the system and tighten their grip on power in order to silence and punish their opposition. 

“If you are confused about what Georgia Republicans are alleging exactly, you should be. Georgia Republicans have contorted themselves to create a pretext for this hearing; and their excuses are disjointed, manufactured and devoid of connection to actual facts. The confusion is the point — to keep your attention while revealing nothing.  

“Here are the facts:

“I founded a nonprofit organization that helped register Georgia voters, and I am proud of that work. In 2017, as I started my campaign for Governor, I fully transferred those voter registration and engagement efforts to a newly-created legal entity with separate leadership.In 2018, I was focused on my campaign; and I was not operating, directing or coordinating with the newly-legally independent New Georgia Project or the action fund it established. 

“The Georgia Ethics Commission—led by an ally of Governor Kemp—has now spent years investigating activities that occurred in 2018. They reached a settlement with the New Georgia Project and its action fund in January 2025. I was not a party to the settlement or to the negotiations leading up to this resolution because I was not involved. I was not involved in the actions that were the subject of the settlement, actions that occurred in 2018. 

“A review of the Commission’s own records bears this out. As part of its investigation, the Georgia Ethics Commission reviewed emails between my campaign with the independent New Georgia Project, and the few emails that existed further demonstrated that I was not leading, directing, or coordinating with the New Georgia Project in 2018. In fact, the Republican head of the Ethics Commission testified to the Georgia Senate Special Committee on Investigations in December 2025 that those emails were not substantive. They have not offered proof that I coordinated with the New Georgia Project in 2018 because I did not do so. Yet this Committee and its allies continue to repeat these false accusations despite the seven years Republicans have already spent on this fruitless, spurious investigation — and admissions by their lead investigator that they are meritless.  

“This hearing, like the legislation that spawned it, is not about new information. This is recycled fiction. But now, like the novels I write, it has a sequel.

“I may be the person they have targeted, but their attack is bigger than any one person.

“This is a test case. A calculated effort to intimidate and disarm voting rights advocates at a time when the right to vote is deeply imperiled. To scare those who fight for our environment at a time when energy prices beg for alternatives. To shut down those who would organize and mobilize the people to defend democracy and what it can deliver as authoritarians expand their domain. These “pretenders to power” think a subpoena is a threat, and they hope it will send a chilling message to every community leader, every volunteer, and every citizen who dares to stand up and speak out. But a threat based on a lie will not scare me, and it should not scare you.

“Across this country, Donald Trump and his Republican allies in Congress and beneath the Gold Dome have made clear their intent to weaponize the justice system against anyone who challenges them. What is happening here in Georgia is part of that same coordinated effort: use the levers of government not to serve the people, but to punish anyone who dares to dissent.

“I will not stop working or fighting for democracy.

“For years, I have worked to defeat their systematic attacks on our democracy, and I have warned about the rise of authoritarianism in America. Across history, authoritarians have followed that 10 step playbook to cement their power, including voter suppression, sham investigations and threatening civic organizations. In America, right now, we’re seeing all 10 steps. 

“Protecting our democracy will not happen in a grand cinematic moment – it’s thousands of individual and community actions that make us stronger and knit us tighter together. But the regime we must oppose extends beyond D.C. The tools of authoritarianism are in our schools, our neighborhoods and in our state capitol. Our obligation every day is to remind them that this state belongs to the people, not those who would take our freedoms. We’ve shown the way here in Georgia, and they want to shut us down. We won’t let them.

“We have fought voter suppression, soft authoritarianism and the disregard for our people all across Georgia — and this is their reaction. They want us to stop, but we continue to fight. 

“I will continue to be in that fight with you.

“I will continue to stand for the rule of law, for transparency, and for accountability. I will continue to fight for the fundamental right of every American citizen to fully participate in our democracy — at and between elections.

“Because this moment is not about one subpoena or threat. It is about whether we allow partisan officials to use our government as a weapon and our rights as ammunition. Georgia deserves better. Our democracy demands better. As ever, I intend to keep working to make sure it delivers for Georgians.

“Thank you.”

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