Democrat Andrew Gillum conceded, again, to Republican Rep. Ron DeSantis in the Florida governor’s race, wrapping up one of the state’s two fiercely contested statewide races and making an ally of President Trump the top official in the key swing state. But the Tallahassee mayor, who would have been the state’s first black governor, vowed that “this fight continues” in a Facebook post in which he stood in front of a lake along with his wife, R. Jai. Gillum said he wanted “to congratulate Mr. DeSantis on becoming the next governor of the great state of Florida.” Gillum had conceded to DeSantis on election night but retracted his concession after the margin between the two narrowed. Gillum, the Democratic candidate, made the statement in a post on Twitter that comes two days after the machine recount results showed Republican DeSantis maintained his lead and the margin between both candidates was not enough to trigger a manual recount. TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Andrew Gillum, who tried 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, ended his hard-fought campaign Saturday as the state’s first black nominee for the post. We know that this fight continues.”

Gillum’s concession came hours before Florida’s counties must turn in their official results at noon Sunday after tense days of recounting ballots in both the gubernatorial and a U.S. Senate contest - two nationally watched midterm elections that have keep the presidential swing state on edge since Election Day.
Florida Democratic candidate Andrew Gillum concedes defeat to Republican candidate Ron DeSantis.