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A Black-led organization that was instrumental in turning the red state of Georgia purple – helping Democrats elect President Joe Biden in 2020 and sweep the state’s runoff elections for Senate the following year – is in turmoil. Four of its executives have resigned or been dismissed in the past six months due to internal strife.

The New Georgia Project, a nonprofit group that registered more than 40,000 Black and brown voters during election years, is bleeding leadership and losing funding at a pivotal moment in the 2024 presidential election campaign.

With 28 days left until the election, the New Georgia Project is drastically behind on its voter outreach compared to previous years, which could result in Black voters losing ground in a state where they have fought hard to make gains.

Current and former staff said that due to a lack of leadership, direction, and overall mismanagement, NGP has fallen drastically behind in its mission for voter outreach in Georgia.

According to the organization’s internal dashboard metrics for campaign door knocking, staffers visited homes a little more than 500,000 times this year for voter outreach through September, compared to the about 3 million doors knocked on in 2022 when Raphael Warnock beat Herschel Walker in the runoff election for the United States Senate. The current outreach figure puts the organization 86% below its goal of 3.7 million door-knocks for 2024 stated in last year’s impact report.

The organization’s board chair, Francys Johnson, is at the center of the current turmoil, according to internal documents, emails, and audio recordings, along with seven interviews with former and current senior leaders. He is also the board treasurer of the New Georgia Project Action Fund, the explicitly partisan arm of the New Georgia Project, which extends his influence over the organization’s governance and operations.

The resigned and dismissed executives have accused Johnson of creating conflicts of interest with his other ventures, stacking the governance boards with his friends, and other instances of overreach from his board positions. When Johnson was the president of the Georgia chapter of the NAACP, fellow members of his state conference accused him of similar misconduct.

Last fall, POLITICO reported that within the New Georgia Project, allegations of rampant financial mismanagement going back to at least 2021 had culminated in the ouster of then-CEO Nsé Ufot, who was replaced by Kendra Davenport Cotton. Now, at least three funders have raised fresh concerns about the nonprofit and have withdrawn or suspended their support due to the governance concerns and the turnover in executive leadership, according to internal communications.

“It has been very horrifying news about what is happening with the organization, and all these things seem to be very self-serving for Francys,” said W. Frank Wilson, the previous chair of the New Georgia Project Action Fund. “None of it seems to be beneficial for the organization.”

Keron Blair, the organization’s chief of field and organizing, was fired in the summer after an investigation into his relationship with a subordinate found no wrongdoing. Starla Tanner, the chief of operations, resigned in May, followed by CEO Kendra Cotton, who, current and former staff say, was forced out in June after complaining about Johnson. In July, Chief Development Officer Candice Drummond informed the boards of the New Georgia Project and New Georgia Project Action Fund that she would no longer be attending organization meetings due to a sexual harassment complaint she had against Johnson. In September, Chief Financial Officer Chianeva Smith also resigned.

In May, a group of executive officers led by then-New Georgia Project CEO Cotton wrote an open letter to the nonprofits’ governing boards pleading to have their concerns about Johnson addressed.

“Chairman/Treasurer Johnson has used his position in ways that blur lines and place the organization in harm’s way,“ the letter begins, adding that his actions “border on abuse of power at best and tremendously unethical at worst.”

The letter outlined some of the financial mismanagement that happened under Johnson’s watch, and his negative impacts on funding, among other accusations.

“We are inviting the Board to lean in and advise Chairman/Treasurer Johnson to stop his interference with day-to-day operations, as well his delaying tactics where the investigations are concerned. Since we believe that this is about power and ego and not about NGP/AF, we are not optimistic that he will heed your advice, but we are hopeful that we will be wrong.”

In response to the reporting of Capital B and detailed questions, a spokesperson for the New Georgia Project and Action Fund sent a statement on behalf of the nonprofits. The statement says that they’ve registered more than 50,000 voters this year, their financial positions are strong, and that they “remain true to our values. Any claims to the contrary are simply untrue.” The organization declined to comment on the boards, personnel, or “confidential business matters,” but were “happy to share that we have strong and visionary leadership and are on our way to meeting our annual goals.”

Trouble over the years

Johnson was raised in south Georgia. He was ordained as a Baptist minister in 1999 and graduated from the University of Georgia School of Law in 2004. Six years later, he started a private law practice specializing in civil rights in Statesboro, Georgia. In October 2013, at age 34, he was elected president of the Georgia chapter of the NAACP.

During his tenure, the Georgia NAACP filed 10 lawsuits related to voting rights and local government and participated in statewide actions, but behind the scenes, numerous issues concerning his presidency were arising. Within three years of his election, internal leaders were speaking out against him to the NAACP’s national leadership. Some were contemplating going to the media for public accountability if the NAACP board didn’t take action during its May 2017 meeting, according to an email to national NAACP leaders acquired by Capital B.

The email accuses Johnson of abuse of power, misappropriation of organization funds, and overall negligence in his duties as president.

“Our concerns are still very great, here at the NAACP, Georgia State Conference pertaining to President Johnson’s leadership and the ongoing unethical and illegal activities regarding, not only the financial activities, but the total operations under his leadership and lack of involvement with the business communities in Georgia,” wrote India Sims, the former chair of labor and industry, in the email. “President Johnson, although a very oratorical speaker indeed, however, he has also become an embarrassment to the GA State Conference, as a whole.”

Derrick Johnson, president and CEO of the NAACP, was one of the recipients of the email. At the time, he was on the NAACP national board of directors, and he told Capital B that Francys Johnson resigned before the organization could launch a formal investigation into the complaints against him.

After Francys Johnson stepped down from his role in July 2017, as far as the public knew, he was still on good terms with the NAACP. The press speculated that he was leaving his post to pursue political office. The following year, he won the Democratic primary for Georgia’s 12th Congressional District but failed to unseat the Republican incumbent, Rick Allen.

Johnson became chair of the New Georgia’s Project’s board after Warnock, the former chair, stepped down to run for the U.S. Senate in 2020. He was added to the Action Fund’s board as well. Former staff said the decision came mostly from the nonprofit’s leadership at the time, and his former presidency with the Georgia NAACP wasn’t interrogated.

That year he also partnered with attorneys Mawuli Davis and Robert Bozeman to form the law firm Davis Bozeman Johnson Law, with Georgia offices in Decatur, Statesboro, and Savannah. It was the height of the racial justice resurgence and of donations sparked by the murder of George Floyd, and Davis’ organization, the Black Man Lab, received tax exempt status. Its mission was to engage Black men in Georgia “to build the elements of authentic manhood.” And some of its financial support came from Johnson’s New Georgia Project connection. During its first two years of tax exemption, the Black Man Lab’s primary activities and most of its expenses were centered around events related to Davis’ book, We Need You, according to public filings. The organization spent $140,000 and about $119,000 on the events in 2021 and 2022, respectively. In response to questions and an interview request, Davis wrote in a statement that he donated copies of his book and received no compensation for the project.

By the fall of 2022, Black Man Lab was paid $110,000 for political engagement with Black men by the New Georgia Project, but later BML did not provide metrics justifying the investment, according to internal correspondence. Johnson was named the Civil Rights Lawyer of the Year that November by the Gate City Bar Association, the state’s first bar group for Black attorneys.

The issues with Johnson built through 2023, according to senior staff and internal correspondence, and by the beginning of 2024, tensions between Johnson and the New Georgia Project’s C-suite were high. One flash point came in February, when Davis approached the organization to sponsor an all-star basketball game in Phoenix with historically Black colleges and universities to promote social justice. NGP executives believed the event had merit, and had funded similar basketball events in the past at the behest of Johnson, but they came to the conclusion in 2024 that it did not align with the organization’s Georgia-focused mission, and rejected providing funds.

The refusal to pay for the event seemed to be a breaking point for Johnson, and the genesis of the current exodus of senior leaders, current and former senior leaders said.

Johnson sought to remove Blair, the chief officer of field operations, from his position a few months after it was revealed that Blair was involved in a sexual relationship with a subordinate, Blair said. An independent investigation had found that Blair exercised poor judgment, but didn’t violate any existing organization policy.

After Blair joined with other executives to oppose financing the HBCU event, he told Capital B, Johnson began advocating for Blair to be fired.

To support his decision to have Blair removed, Johnson shared details of Blair’s sex life with staff, according to staff members and recordings. One senior staff member told Capital B that Johnson showed them an image of a nude man seen from behind that was taken from a private sex video Johnson had obtained allegedly of Blair. Johnson also mentioned the video during a development team meeting, according to audio of the meeting obtained by Capital B. Candice Drummond also accused Johnson of making inappropriate sexual comments to her in her human resources complaint that was reviewed by Capital B.

Blair discussed resigning with Johnson after realizing he made a mistake in hiring someone who was his sexual partner and submitted a transition plan, but no action was taken against him until after he opposed the HBCU event, he said. He denounced Johnson for what he described as violations of his privacy. “Those are not things that you share,” Blair said.

He said he is distraught about the current state of the organization under Johnson. “So often with organizations like NGP or particularly Black orgs, somehow, there is an unwillingness to say this person being in leadership, this person should not lead,” Blair said.

In the wake of the executive departures that followed Blair’s, the New Georgia Project sponsored more events with the Black Man Lab, and staff say Johnson has replaced key leaders with his personal connections. In September, BML — which has a dedicated page on Johnson and Davis’ law firm’s website — kicked off a multi-city tour in Georgia supported with New Georgia Project funds.

Johnson declined to comment on matters involving the New Georgia Project beyond the organization’s statement. In an email to Capital B, he wrote, “In my personal capacity, I would love to defend my name. However, there are times when one must trust that the work done will speak. I believe a fair review of my service as a pastor, lawyer, and organizer over the last 25 years will speak louder and with more clarity than those with a vested interest to distort the same.”

His business partner, Davis, also disputed some of the details presented in emails to Capital B, including insisting that an invoice emailed by him to the New Georgia Project in 2020 “had nothing to do with Black Man Lab,” even though the invoice reads, “Please make check payable to: Black Man Lab.” He rejects that there is a conflict of interest between his business relationship, his nonprofit, and the New Georgia Project.

“Unfortunately, it appears the good name and work of the Black Man Lab (BML) has been placed in jeopardy by former New Georgia Project (NGP) employees angry with my law partner, Francys Johnson,” Davis wrote in a statement. “The attempts to insinuate that the BML has been involved in any unethical conduct are without merit.”

The state of Georgia

Near the end of 2013, ​​then-Georgia House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams founded the New Georgia Project with the ambition of registering at least 120,000 Black and brown voters in the state. While the organization failed to hit its lofty target, the organization and its ideals quickly spread throughout the state. Abrams became a gubernatorial hopeful, and the state came into play for Democrats.

By 2020, the New Georgia Project and the New Georgia Project Action Fund grew from $277,000 in combined contributions in 2017, to more than $37 million. In 2021, Democrats Jon Ossoff and Warnock swept their Republican opponents to become United States senators.

As the organization has been struggling to meet its benchmarks for voter outreach under Johnson, Kamala Harris’ support in Georgia may be slipping. The FiveThirtyEight polling average for the state had Harris up on Trump by almost half a percentage point at the start of September, and now she trails the former president by over 1 percent in the model. A mid-September New York Times/Siena College poll showed worse results for the vice president, with her behind by 4 points, although still within the poll’s margin of error.

Frank Wilson, the former NGPAF board chair, is hopeful that Johnson will separate himself from the organization, either on his own accord or under the direction of the boards, because he believes the current situation is negatively impacting operations and staff.

“They know the difference between what was happening this time last year, what was happening this time six months ago, and how things are going right now,” Wilson said. In the long run, he said, acknowledging the issues and holding people accountable is what is best for the New Georgia Project’s mission.

“A lot of times these kinds of setbacks are good because it gives you an opportunity to recalibrate, refocus, and become recharged for the greater work,” he said.

Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated when Keron Blair was fired. He said he was released at the end of June.