Sources indicate Ed Gillespie will concede the U.S. Senate race to Mark Warner this afternoon. Gillespie will praise the efforts of volunteers and staff that helped bring him within 1 percent of victory, in a race with over 2 million votes cast, while acknowledging that the roughly 16,000 vote margin between him and Warner would be impossible to overcome in a statutorily-allowed recount.[read_more]
Hats off to Gillespie for undertaking this effort. When critics called this race unwinnable, Gillespie shrugged them off and undertook the arduous work of proving them wrong. His showing on Tuesday night vindicated his belief that Mark Warner was not, as many pundits liked to say, untouchable. Although unsuccessful, Gillespie’s outperforming of expectations has also given a shot in the arm to Virginia Republicans…a rare bright spot in a 5-year losing streak at the statewide level.
UPDATE: Gillespie held a press conference at 1:00 pm to publicly announce that he had called to concede to Mark Warner, and that he thought it would be irresponsible to his supporters and to the taxpayers and voters of Virginia to engage in a recount when a reversal of the outcome would essentially be impossible. More here, from the Washington Post.
