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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) – Democrat Senator Bill Nelson, a Florida political icon whose career culmination could have been a space shuttle trip, conceded his highly reiterated candidacy to Republican Rick Scott on Sunday, giving up a slim race to the outgoing governor of Florida after a tense and sometimes turbulent recount.
Nelson gave up his fight to maintain his longevity in power after days of acrimony and tense narratives leading to a deadline set for Sunday noon for the Florida counties to report their official results. Florida will not officially certify final totals until Tuesday, but they showed Nelson just under 10,000 votes less than Scott.
"It was a rewarding trip and a very humbling experience," Nelson said in a statement. "I was not victorious in this race, but I still want to strongly reaffirm the cause for which we fought: a public service is a public trust".
The staggering end of nearly two weeks of high-profile political drama in the presidential regime probably spelled the end of Nelson's 76-year-old political career. Elected for the first time in Congress 40 years ago, Nelson was a Democratic survivor at a time when Republicans came to power in Florida. He made his first election to the US Senate in 2000 and made his fourth attempt at reelection.
For Scott, who was urged by President Donald Trump to challenge Nelson, it was his third tight victory after getting into politics eight years ago.
"The campaign is really behind us and that's where we have to leave it," Scott said in a statement. "We must do what Americans have always done: to unite for the good of our state and our country. My goal will not be to look back, but to do exactly what I did: make Washington work. "
Trump congratulated Scott on his victory on Twitter: "Since the first day, Rick Scott has never hesitated, he was a great governor and will even be a bigger senator in the representation of the people of Florida." Congratulations to Rick for having led a courageous and successful campaign! ''
After it became clear that the race between Nelson and Scott was going to result in a legally binding recount, Nelson and the Democrats brought several lawsuits challenging everything from Scott's authority over the electoral division of the state to postal voting deadlines.
Nelson's campaign managed to get one win in court. US District Judge Mark Walker gave voters up until 5 pm. Saturday to set their ballots if they have not been counted because of mismatched signatures. Nearly 5,700 ballots were rejected because the signatures on the ballot envelopes did not match the signatures kept in the files by the election officials.
Walker rejected Democrats' request to automatically count all ballots with incompatible signatures. He also rejected a request to remove the deadlines for national postal ballots, even if they had been posted before polling day. Under Florida law, ballots sent to the United States must be in the polls by 7 pm polling day to count. Overseas ballots are counted when they are received up to 10 days after the election.
The recount of bruises followed an equally negative campaign.
While the two candidates were not in agreement on key issues, they focused primarily on character and competence. Scott has repeatedly said that Nelson was an ineffective senator when he called him a disciple of Trump, who had used the governor's office to consolidate his fortune.
Scott, a former executive and multimillionaire in the health sector, made his political debut eight years ago while he was heading to the governor's office. The limits of his mandate prevented him from representing himself.
As chief executive of the state, Scott focused on job creation and the recovery of Florida's economy after the recession. But instead of boasting about this record during his campaign for the US Senate, Scott mainly hammered Nelson. He has used more than $ 60 million of his money for a series of breathtaking announcements.
When Scott made his first jump, the contest was considered one of the country's most prominent races. The governor's race quickly overshadowed it: it was a vitriolic competition between Republican Ron DeSantis and Democrat Andrew Gillum, which became an indirect battle between Trump and his Democratic opponents.
The two candidates were not in agreement on issues ranging from gun control to environmental policy to health care. Nelson was a strong supporter of President Barack Obama's reform of the federal health system, while Scott called for the law to be repealed and replaced.
Nelson and his allies aired advertisements that challenged Scott's ethics, citing his dismissal as chief executive of the health giant Columbia / HCA, as part of a federal fraud investigation. Although Scott has never been charged with wrongdoing, the health-care conglomerate then imposed a record $ 1.7 billion fine for Medicare-related fraud.
The Democrats also asked if Scott had any conflicts as a governor since he and his wife had both invested in Florida-based companies, including a subsidiary of the company that owns Florida's largest electric utility. . Scott maintained that he did not control his holdings
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