Florida governor's race over

DeSantis bests Gillum; U.S. Senate vote recount goes on

Susan Bucher, election supervisor in Palm Beach County, Fla., pushes a cart Saturday in the election service center in Riviera Beach.
Susan Bucher, election supervisor in Palm Beach County, Fla., pushes a cart Saturday in the election service center in Riviera Beach.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Andrew Gillum conceded the Florida governor's race Saturday afternoon and congratulated Republican Ron DeSantis, even as a recount of votes continued in the Florida race for U.S. Senate.

Most Florida counties had finished their hand recount in the state's contentious Senate race.

State officials ordered a manual recount Thursday after a machine recount showed that Republican Gov. Rick Scott led incumbent Democrat Bill Nelson by about 12,600 votes. More than 8 million voters cast ballots in the race.

The counties have until noon today to report official results to the Department of State.

The smattering of results publicly posted Saturday showed that Nelson was gaining only a few hundred votes against outgoing Gov. Rick Scott.

Gillum, the state's first black nominee for governor, had sought to energize Florida's young and minority voters through a Democratic coalition seeking to end two decades of Republican control of the governor's office.

Gillum, whose refrain had been "bring it home" as he recounted stories of growing up poor in the state, concluded his campaign Saturday with a Facebook video that he recorded alongside his wife in a park.

In the 4-minute-plus video, Gillum congratulated DeSantis and vowed to remain politically active even though his term as mayor of the Florida capital of Tallahassee ends next week. Of his future plans, Gillum said: "stay tuned."

Gillum, 39, earned national attention and financial backing from well-known liberal billionaires with his first bid for statewide office. He ran on a liberal platform that included expanding Medicaid and raising taxes to spend more on education even though both ideas would have been hard to pass through the GOP-controlled Legislature.

"This has been the journey of our lives," said Gillum in the video. "Although nobody wanted to be governor more than me that this was not just about an election cycle. This was about creating the type of change in this state that really allows for the voices of everyday people to show up again in our government, in our state, and in our communities. We know that this fight continues."

Gillum's brief remarks came hours after President Donald Trump, who at one point in the campaign had sharply criticized Gillum, praised him for running a tough race.

Gillum had initially conceded to DeSantis on election night, but he retracted it as the razor-thin margin between the two candidates narrowed. But he still trailed DeSantis by more than 30,000 votes after a legally required machine recount.

DeSantis, 40, was considered an underdog before Trump tweeted his support for DeSantis in December, a month before DeSantis even entered the race. Trump campaigned to help push DeSantis to a primary victory in August and visited Florida two more times to help the Republican in the final days of the election.

DeSantis' campaign did not respond to Gillum's remarks Saturday, pointing instead to a statement the former congressman put out two days ago.

"Campaigns are meant to be vigorously debated contests of ideas and competing visions for the future," DeSantis said. "The campaign for governor achieved this objective as evidenced by historic voter turnout from people of all parties across our state. But campaigns of ideas must give way to governing and bringing people together to secure Florida's future. With the campaign now over, that's where all of my focus will be."

photo

AP/South Florida Sun-Sentinel/MIKE STOCKER

Broward County Canvassing Board members Betsy Benson (left) and Deborah Carpenter-Toye review ballots Saturday in the waning hours of a hand recount in the state’s hotly contested U.S. Senate race. Counties have until noon today to file official results, but results Saturday showed Democratic incumbent U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson gaining only a few hundred votes as he trailed the GOP candidate, Gov. Rick Scott.

A Section on 11/18/2018

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