Scott wins Senate seat in Florida after incumbent Nelson concedes
Florida Gov. Rick Scott will be changing jobs -- U.S. senator -- as
incumbent Bill Nelson conceded two hours after a hand recount showed a
10,000-vote difference.
Scott, a Republican governor for eight years, first announced the
concession in a post on Facebook. "I just spoke with Senator Bill
Nelson, who graciously conceded, and I thanked him for his years of
public service."
Nelson announced his concession in a video message on Sunday afternoon,
saying the race turned out "a little differently" than he had hoped.
"I by no measure feel defeated. That's because I've had the privilege of
serving the people of Florida for most of my life. It has been a
rewarding journey as well as a very humbling experience. I don't think
anyone could have been as blessed," Nelson said. "I was not victorious
in this race, but I still wish to strongly reaffirm the cause for which
we fought, a public office is a public trust."
Earlier, Florida's secretary of state released the final results for its
midterm elections, including manual recounts for senator and
agriculture commissioner.
The manual recount of the senator's race showed Scott leading incumbent
Nelson by 10,033 votes out of more than 8 million cast, compared with
around 12,000 votes after the machine recount.
Democrat Nicole "Nikki" Fried led Republican Matt Caldwell by 6,753
votes after the manual recount in the tight race for agriculture
commissioner, although Palm Beach County hadn't begun a manual recount
of that race. Fried led by about 5,300 votes after the machine recount.
Results from the recounts are scheduled to be made official by the state's elections canvassing board Tuesday.
Official results were released by Florida's Division of Elections after
the noon Sunday deadline to report the manual recounts, which examined
overvotes and undervotes -- instances in which a ballot wasn't counted
because a voter marked too many or too few candidates.
The recount in Broward County was marred with problems as the elections
supervisor misplaced more than 2,000 ballots during its machine recount
and the county's canvassing board chose to combine its manual recount
totals with its original unofficial totals submitted before recounts
began.
Nelson filed a number of mostly unsuccessful lawsuits in hopes of
closing the gap with Scott, including one calling for a manual recount
in Palm Beach County, which remains open.
"Now the campaign truly is behind us, and that's where we need to leave
it," Scott said. "My focus will not be on looking backward, but on doing
exactly what I ran on: Making Washington Work. I know change is never
popular in Washington and that I'm just one person - but we have to
start somewhere. Over the past eight years, we brought great change to
Florida. Now, we have the opportunity to do even more. Let's get to
work."
The Senate race is one of four races flipped to Republicans compared
with two seats that moved to Democrats. In all there were 35 Senate
races in November.
In Mississippi, Republican interim Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith leads Democrat
Mike Espy, the state's agriculture secretary, but didn't receive a
majority of the votes. A special election has been set for Nov. 27. If
Hyde-Smith prevails, the party will increase majority by two seats to
53-47. Two independents caucus with Democrats.
Scott's gubernatorial job will be filled by Republican Ron DeSantis, who
led by about 30,000 votes after machine recount. Democratic
gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum conceded on Saturday.
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