Stacey Abrams may have lost the Georgia gubernatorial race this year – but she doesn't think her political career is over.
“Yes, I’m going to run again,” Abrams said when asked during Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Next Gen summit Tuesday, adding: “Stay tuned!”
She said she hasn’t yet decided what office she’ll seek next because she wants to avoid making “decisions out of anger.” She also said the next job should have a “mission” that aligns with her skillset.
“I care about policy,” Abrams said. “I’m driven by a commitment to justice, to ending poverty, to addressing social needs and using public policy as a tool to improve the lives around us.”
Abrams, who had hoped to make history as the first black governor of Georgia and first female black governor of any state, lost November’s gubernatorial election to Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State Brian Kemp.
The race was one of the most closely watched gubernatorial contests nationally in the 2018 midterm elections. It was also marked with drama and intrigue as Democrats, including Abrams, raised concerns of voter suppression.
Abrams has famously declined to officially concede the election and said she would not call Kemp the legitimate governor-elect. On Tuesday, Abrams said she refused to concede the race “because words matter.”
“For me, concession – there’s a legal and moral nature to conceding. It means you’ve accepted something is right, that it is just, that it is proper,” Abrams said. “What happened was not just. And it’s not about whether I get to be inaugurated as governor; it’s about thousands of people who were denied the right to vote in the most remarkable democracy ever put on this earth.”
Stacey Abrams, the Democrat who unsuccessfully ran for governor of Georgia this year, says she plans to run for office again in the future. (Getty Images/Jessica McGowan)
“So, yes, [Kemp] is going to become the governor. Yes, for four years he will be responsible. But no, I do not concede that what happened to me and to others,” she continued. “I will not accept that that is true and a good and proper thing.”
As secretary of state, part of Kemp’s duties included the responsibility of “the administration of secure, accessible, and fair elections,” according to his website. He touted Georgia’s so-called “exact match” law, which flags discrepancies between voter registrations and official identification documents. If there are any differences – such as a missing hyphen – voters had to clear the matter up with a state official before voting.
But those restrictions were estimated to affect only approximately 3,000 voters – far short of the nearly 55,000-vote margin that Kemp obtained on his way to victory. He also resigned as secretary of state shortly after the election.
Despite the loss, Abrams said she considered her race to be “successful” because of her campaign’s ability to “turn out voters who had never been engaged” in politics before, pointing specifically to African Americans and younger voters.
An attorney, Abrams was the first black leader in the Georgia state House, having previously served as the minority leader. She is also an award-winning romance novelist, penning eight books under the nom de plume Selena Montgomery.
Fox News’ Gregg Re contributed to this report.
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