Terry McAuliffe refuses to concede Virginia race after downer Election Night message

Democrat Terry McAuliffe declined to formally concede defeat in the Virginia gubernatorial race Tuesday night, despite trailing Republican Glenn Youngkin by more than 100,000 votes with most precincts reported.

"We still got a lot of votes to count, we got about 18 percent of the vote out, so we're gonna continue to count the votes because every single Virginian deserves to have their vote counted," McAuliffe told cheering supporters in the suburban outpost of Tysons Corner, at around 10:20 p.m. Moments later, McAuliffe tweeted a statement that echoed his earlier remarks.

Youngkin's lead shrank as heavily Democratic counties in northern Virginia reported outstanding votes, but ultimately McAuliffe could not make up enough ground to overtake his opponent.

"McAuliffe finally makes a smart campaign decision by avoiding his donors on election night," tweeted former Mike Pence campaign spokesman Jon Thompson.

As results poured in showing Youngkin taking a clear lead in the commonwealth, the McAuliffe campaign kept a low profile.

McAuliffe gained notoriety at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston when he told delegates: "We actually won the last presidential election, folks. They stole the last presidential election."

When confronted with that claim during an interview with a Virginia TV station last month, McAuliffe refused to say whether George W. Bush had been "Legitimately elected" president in 2000, saying only: "He got sworn in. Once you're sworn in, we've gotta move on."

https://nypost.com/2021/11/02/terry-mcauliffe-refuses-to-concede-virginia-race-after-downer-election-night-message/