Stacey Abrams Says She Opposes Defunding the Police. She Led a Group That Wants To ‘Defund the Police.’

Gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams was ‘honored’ to co-chair an organization that gave tens of thousands of dollars to anti-police activists

August 16, 2022 — Democratic Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, who says she opposes defunding the police, co-chaired a left-wing group that gave tens of thousands of dollars to defund-the-police activists, Fox News reported Tuesday. Abrams in April 2021 became the co-chairwoman of the Black Voices for Black Justice Fund, saying in a press release that she was 'honored' to join the fund, which works with 'Black activists on the ground who understand how racism plays out.' The fund, which is bankrolled in part by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's foundation, has awarded thousands of dollars to activists who support abolishing the police.

Abrams is best known for losing the 2018 Georgia gubernatorial election to incumbent Republican Brian Kemp, whom she is again facing in this year's election, and then falsely claiming that Kemp stole the election from her. Her fellow Democrats, many of whom have called former president Donald Trump's claims of election fraud an existential threat to democracy, have not criticized her claims.

The Black Voices for Black Justice Fund awarded $20,000 to Education Leaders of Color CEO Sharhonda Bossier, who tweeted in May 2020 that 'it means nothing that these elected officials are expressing support for ‘peaceful protests'' and that politicians should instead support efforts to 'defund the police.' Bossier repeated the call in April 2021, tweeting, 'We spend SO MUCH money on officer training, etc. If we cannot expect that police can respond to incidents without killing people we should… DEFUND & ABOLISH THE POLICE.'

The fund this year gave out awards to Black Lives Matter Global Network founding member Kei Williams, who has repeatedly expressed support for police defunding, and activist William Jackson, who has tweeted, 'I'm for abolishing the police.'

Black Voices for Black Justice's website listed Abrams as its co-chairwoman as recently as November, Fox News found. The site now showcases a picture of Abrams and lists her as one of the group's two 'co-chairs emeriti.' Abrams' campaign told Fox that the candidate 'does not and never has supported defunding the police.' The campaign did not respond to Fox’s request for comment on whether Abrams disavows the group. In addition to the Black Voices for Black Justice Fund, Abrams remains a board member of the Marguerite Casey Foundation, which this year expressed support for defunding the police.

Karl Salzmann is an assistant editor at the Washington Free Beacon. He was previously the Collegiate Network fellow at the New York Post and the Collegiate Network intern at National Review. His email is salzmann@ freebeacon.com.