One of the last times former U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler was on a stage at the Grand Hyatt in Atlanta, it was the night of Jan. 5, 2001. She, along with every Republican in Georgia, was hoping to get word that she’d won her Senate runoff election against then-candidate Raphael Warnock.

Loeffler lost that night, but she hasn’t left the field for the GOP. Within months, she launched a grassroots organization, Greater Georgia, and spent millions to set up conservative voter registration and turnout machines that she said did not exist when she was running for office.

“As a businesswoman, you don’t just shut down a quarter-billion dollar enterprise and say, ‘Great, let someone else figure out how to set all this up again,’” she said. “So I built Greater Georgia.”

Erickson didn’t let Loeffler leave the stage without asking about her political plans for the future. She’s often mentioned among Republicans as a potential candidate for governor in 2026, especially since having a pre-built statewide organization like Loeffler’s would be a huge advantage for any candidate.

“Greater Georgia is plenty of politics for me right now,” she said.

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Workers sort absentee ballots at the Gwinnett Voter Registrations and Elections building. Under GOP lawmakers' proposal, the secretary of state would ask counties and cities to voluntarily participate in the trial of hand-marked paper ballots during the election for Public Service Commission on Nov. 4. Daniel Varnado/gor the AJC)

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