After two election losses, what’s next for Stacey Abrams? Her political celebrity lives on, experts say.

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SAVANNAH, Ga. — It wasn't even close – Stacey Abrams conceded the Georgia governor's race to Gov. Brian Kemp before midnight on Election Night. 

"I may no longer be seeking the office of governor, but I will never stop doing everything in my power to make sure the people of Georgia have a voice," Abrams said during her concession speech.

The two-time Democratic nominee for governor had lost in 2018 by less than two percentage points, or 55,000 votes; on Tuesday she lost by more than 7%, or approximately 300,000 votes. Abrams will not spend the next four years in the governor's mansion, but with a national profile, several voting rights organizations, and even a sideline as a fiction writer, she has options for what to do next.

"While we may not write the story today, there will always be another chapter," she concluded her speech.

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Abram's loss was not a surprise, according to Andra Gillespie, a political scientist at Emory University.

"I think it has to do with incumbency advantage," Gillespie said of Abrams gaining far fewer votes this year. "In 2018, Kemp and Abrams were evenly matched, neither had been governor." 

But Gillespie did say she was surprised that Abrams was not the second highest vote-getter among Democrats, after incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock. Both Lt. Gov. candidate Charlie Bailey and Attorney General candidate Jen Jordan received more total votes than Abrams.

Gillespie said that racial and gender bias — Bailey and Jordan are both white — and Kemp's strong incumbency might have contributed.

"We're going to have to look at more data," she said. 

Organizers double down

Even with defeats up and down the ballot, Gillespie thinks that Democrats in Georgia still have a shot.

"I still think Georgia is competitive, it's a different environment from 2020, you're not running against Donald Trump," she said. 

Aimee Allison, founder and president of She the People, an organization focused on the political power of women of color, said she thought Abrams' work was in large part what got the state to where it is today, politically.

"The infrastructure that Stacey Abrams established, actually, before 2018, and the New Georgia Project, the statewide organizing infrastructure, has changed the political landscape and possibilities for the foreseeable future in Georgia," Allison said. 

Allison pointed to the bright spot of the night for Democrats — Warnock leading his Republican challenger Herschel Walker as the two men head into a runoff — as in part a result of this organizing. She also mentioned progressive Congresswoman Lucy McBath, who was drawn out of her congressional district in last year's redistricting but won an adjacent district instead. 

"Sometimes ... you till very hard ground," Allison said. "And you don't benefit from the fruits of your labor, not immediately." 

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Abrams' strategy of focusing on a base of non-white voters instead of trying to find moderate positions to appeal to largely Republican white voters was success, Allison said, and one Democrats are going to need to adopt going into 2024. In the gubernatorial race, Abrams won 90% of the Black vote and over half of the Latino and Asian vote, while pickup up just 25% of the white vote, according to NBC exit polls. 

"The Democrats, for one, have to harness the momentum of Black and brown women voters," she said. "And finally, for once and for all, start centering their investment and messaging, their candidates and turnout operations on this core group of voters."

DaMareo Cooper, co-executive director of the Center for Popular Democracy Action — Abram's New Georgia Project is an affiliate — thinks that the work Abrams has already done has helped engage voters, but that the work needs to continue.

"You can't stop engaging voters after elections, he said. "I think Georgia is still going in the right direction."

Where does she go from here?

Just because Abrams is not governor does not mean she will not continue to be a political player.

Gillespie points to her work founding and expanding the voting access organization Fair Fight, and her work with Amazon on a documentary.

"Stacey Abrams is still in the public eye," she said.

Also, governor of Georgia is not the only political office available. 

"She may not run for governor again, that doesn't mean she won't run for office again," Gillespie said.

Cooper said he hopes Abrams and the New Georgia project will continue their organizing.

"They've shown us it's possible," he said. "I think Stacey still has a bunch of options."