Democratic candidate for Florida’s governorship, Andrew Gillum, conceded to Republican Ron DeSantis after a long and bitter fight that went into a Statewide electronic recount of votes. Had he won, Mr. Gillum, a progressive, would have been Florida’s first African-American Governor.
After conceding to Mr. DeSantis on the night of the November 6 midterm elections, the 39-year-old Mayor of Tallahassee withdrew his concession as counting went on and the gap between the candidates narrowed to 33,000 votes.
Florida law requires a Statewide electronic recount if the margin of victory is 0.5% or less and a hand recount if it is 0.25% or less.
Although it had emerged that Mr. DeSantis had won for all practical purposes after the machine recount ended on Thursday without breaching the 0.25% mark, Mr. Gillum held out till Saturday to concede. The Democrats have made a point of ensuring that every vote is counted. “R.J. and I wanted to take a moment to congratulate Mr. DeSantis on becoming the Governor of the great state of Florida,” Mr. Gillum said via a Facebook video, in which he appeared with his wife R.J.
‘Hard-fought campaign’
“This was a hard-fought campaign,” Mr. DeSantis said via Twitter. “Now it’s time to bring Florida together.”
U.S. President Donald Trump campaigned particularly hard for Mr. DeSantis, a former Congressman and Ivy League-educated Navy lawyer and admirer of Mr. Trump. Shortly before his concession, Mr. Trump congratulated Mr. Gillum on Twitter for a hard-fought battle. “He will be a strong Democrat warrior long into the future — a force to reckon with!” Mr Trump said on Saturday. Earlier in the campaign, Mr. Trump had made comments with racist undertones, calling Mr Gillum a “thief”.
Hand count results for the Senate race between Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson and his opponent, Governor Rick Scott, were due on Sunday, as were recount results for the Agricultural Commissioner race.
