Stacey Abrams Spent Seven Figures on Safety Earlier than Dropping Georgia Governor’s Race

• Stacey Abrams’ marketing campaign directed most of its safety spending to an Atlanta-based agency.
• The agency, Govt Safety Companies, has additionally labored for an Abrams-tied advocacy group.
• Lawmakers and candidates have more and more turned to marketing campaign funds for private safety.

Within the months earlier than her November 8 election loss to Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, Stacey Abrams spent greater than $1.2 million of her marketing campaign cash on safety — a very great amount for a politician and a sum that consultants say displays the rising risk of political violence in the US.

Abrams, a outstanding Democrat who had beforehand run in opposition to Kemp in 2018, directed practically all of her safety spending to a single agency: Govt Safety Companies LLC.

The Atlanta-based agency beforehand acquired a separate seven-figure sum — additionally greater than $1.2 million — from Honest Combat, political motion committee tied to Abrams, for unspecified “safety” companies throughout 2021, based on federal marketing campaign finance disclosures. Abrams launched the advocacy group to deal with voter suppression following her slender loss to Kemp within the 2018 gubernatorial election in Georgia.

Abrams’ safety spending underscored how candidates — on the state and federal ranges — have grown more and more involved about partisan violence amid an increase in violent political speech.

Simply two weeks earlier than Tuesday’s election, that risk reached the doorstep of Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whose husband underwent surgical procedure to restore a cranium fracture after an intruder broke into the couple’s San Francisco house and hit him over the top with a hammer. Inside their house, the person charged with attacking Pelosi shouted, “The place is Nancy, the place is Nancy?” — a query that eerily echoed what members of the pro-Trump mob yelled in the course of the January 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol.

It’s unclear what safety companies Govt Safety Companies supplied to Abrams’ marketing campaign, and neither Abrams’ marketing campaign nor Govt Safety Companies responded to Insider’s requests for remark.

On its website, Govt Safety Companies advertises its bodyguards as “present or former elite regulation enforcement officers.” The agency says that celebrities, fashions, and different high-profile people are “in danger” and want safety experience.

The agency’s CEO, Tim Howard, has promoted his work with Abrams and Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia on Twitter, posting images of himself with the 2 Democrats and different outstanding figures, together with tennis star Serena Williams, actress Halle Berry, and President Joe Biden.

Govt Safety Companies’ different purchasers embrace Rep. Nikema Williams of Georgia and Warnock, based on disclosures. Warnock, in his first run for a full time period after successful a particular election two years in the past, is headed for a December runoff in opposition to Republican nominee Herschel Walker.

“These are the information of life, however you do not have to allow them to decide your life. There’s a gentle on the finish of the tunnel, and it comes within the type of skilled bodyguards for rent,” the agency states. “You do not need overpriced bouncers with an angle; you need consultants whose abilities and coaching are targeted like a laser beam on one function: your complete well-being.”

After initially specializing in Georgia, Honest Combat has expanded in recent times to work with Democrats in a number of swing states to forestall voter suppression, elevating Abrams alongside the way in which. Abrams introduced the next nationwide profile to her rematch in opposition to Kemp and was credited with serving to to show Georgia blue within the 2020 election.

Of the greater than $1.2 million Abrams’ marketing campaign paid for safety, solely a small sliver went to a agency aside from Govt Safety Companies. On July 26, the marketing campaign paid $1,162.07 to the Georgia-based Superior Safety Ideas, based on state marketing campaign finance disclosures.

Altering political safety norms

Lately, members of Congress and political candidates have more and more tapped into marketing campaign contributions to pay for bodyguards and different safety measures.

The Federal Election Fee paved the way in which for such spending in March 2021, when it ruled that members of Congress might spend marketing campaign funds on “bona fide, reliable, skilled private safety personnel.”

Even before the FEC’s ruling, some lawmakers charged protection-related expenditures to their campaigns — notably within the weeks after the Capitol assault, a second that served as a wake-up name to the specter of political violence.

Through the assault, then-Vice President Mike Pence and Pelosi have been whisked to security whereas members of Congress huddled behind closed doorways guarded by police.