On paper, politics doesn’t appear to pay well. But it is remarkable how consistently Democratic politicians become wealthy. Maybe some Republicans do, too. But somehow, it always seems to be the Democrats.
Stacey Abrams is a case in point. At RealClearInvestigations, Paul Sperry chronicles her meteoric financial rise:
Despite a history marked by bill collectors, tax liens, and ethics investigations, the Georgia politician and Democratic Party activist has managed to amass a small fortune – while working most of her career in the not-for-profit sector.
Financial records show that when she first entered statewide politics in 2018, she reported a net worth of less than $109,000. By 2022, the last year she had to publicly file a financial report, it had grown to more than $3.2 million. Abrams is probably even better off than that, thanks to her latest venture: Rewiring America, which uses federal funds to provide low-income people with free electric appliances.
Abrams’ net worth grew by $3.1 million in four years, which is around $800,000 per year. If she did that by earning and saving money, she would have had to earn at least $1.5 million a year, assuming she lived frugally–which she never has done. How did Abrams make that kind of money? This is how she describes her recent career:
Stacey Abrams is a New York Times bestselling author, business owner and political leader whose innovative approach has continued to break barriers and support transformational progress. A prolific author, she has written award-winning political thrillers, children’s books, romantic suspense novels, and non-fiction books. She previously served as Minority Leader in the Georgia House of Representatives, and she was the first Black woman to become the gubernatorial nominee for a major party in United States history. Abrams has launched multiple nonprofit organizations devoted to democracy protection, voting rights, tackling policy issues and building a more equitable future. She is also a serial entrepreneur and business advisor. In 2020, Abrams founded Sage Works Productions, Inc., a media company dedicated to leveraging the power of storytelling to craft creative solutions and engage.
There is much more about the sources of Abrams’ wealth at the link.
Rewiring America would have been Abrams’ big score: that is the nonprofit to which the Biden administration, in its last days, awarded $1.9 billion. Up to that time, the organization had raised almost no money and had done essentially nothing. Its role presumably would have been to dole that $1.9 billion out to other organizations–no doubt, in most cases, organizations with close ties to the Democratic Party. If Abrams had nipped off 1% of her nonprofit’s revenues as her share of the loot–a modest amount, for a liberal–it would have been $19 million. The Trump administration is now trying to recover the $1.9 billion that Biden awarded to Abrams–like throwing gold bars off the deck of the Titanic, as one Biden official described it.
The federal government spends trillions of dollars every year. Democrats send as much of that money as they can to their friends and supporters, and to each other when they are out of office. When you are talking about many billions of dollars, a lot of people can become wealthy. And a lot of Democrats do.
