Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) declared victory late on Tuesday against Republican Ed Gillespie who posed a surprisingly serious challenge to the incumbent Democrat’s election chances.
With 99 percent reporting, Warner was leading Gillespie by just 13,000 votes out of the 2 million that were cast, according to The Washington Post.
“I want to congratulate Ed Gillespie. He ran a hard fought campaign,” Warner said.
Warner’s comments came even though the race hadn’t been called by multiple major outlets and Gillespie had declined to concede.
The leader in the race fluctuated throughout election night and at points it looked like Gillespie was going to bring about one of the biggest upsets of the night.
As of 10:41 PM Warner was leading Gillespie 48.7 percent to 48.6 percent. By total votes, that’s 1,036,234 votes for Warner and 1,033,799 votes for Gillespie. Earlier in the night Gillespie had been leading Warner.
Essentially Gillespie, the former chairman of the Republican National Committee, performed surprisingly well in suburban areas. He’d also done notably well than expected in Loudoun county.
Warner had a large campaign advantage over Gillespie. In mid-October Warner had $8 million to spend while Gillespie had just $2 million.
In the lead up to the election it definitely seemed like Gillespie was in for a quick and decisive defeat. One of the last ads he aired before Tuesday night’s midterm was him promising to oppose a Redskins name change if elected, unlike, Gillespie said in the ad, Warner. Earlier in October Gillespie also appeared to be abandoning television ads completely.
