Florida Election: Sen Bill Nelson Concedes Race

TALLAHASSE, FL — Florida incumbent Sen. Bill Nelson issued his long-awaited concession speech on Sunday just hours after a deadline for the completion of a hand recount in his close race against Republican Gov. Rick Scott.

“We must end all forms of voter suppression, make it easier for Americans to vote and honor the ideal that we are governed by a majority and not the minority rule,” Nelson said. “I will continue to fight hard for what’s right and i will also encourage others to seek common ground with their colleagues, colleagues on the other side of the aisle.”

The unofficial results available on the state's election website shortly after 1 p.m. Sunday showed Scott leading by 4,099,505 votes to 4,089,472, a margin of 10,033 votes.

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Prior to Sunday, Nelson had not formally conceded the race to Scott, who posed for photographs with other freshmen senators in Washington, D.C. earlier in the week.

On Saturday, Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum conceded the Florida governor's race for a second time, two days after a machine recount of more than 8 million ballots failed to change the Democrat's fortunes. Republican former Congressman Ron DeSantis will be sworn in as the state's 46th governor in January.

Nelson was first elected to the U.S. Senate in November 2000, sixteen years after he strapped into the Space Shuttle Columbia for an epic six days orbiting the Earth.

"From that perspective, you can see how we’re all in this together," he says on his campaign website of the experience. "If we could just remember that, we’d sure get a lot more done."

Photo of Sen. Bill Nelson courtesy Senate campaign