Demo Strategy: Delegitimize Republican Election Victories

Democrats in Florida have now lost the machine recount in elections for both governor and senator, yet they refuse to concede and continue to campaign as if the election were still going. The result of the Senate election is that Republican Gov. Rick Scott beat Democrat Sen. Bill Nelson by just under 13,000 votes. By Florida law, this narrow margin trigged a second recount, this one by hand, so one can reasonably argue that Nelson’s waiting for the end of the second recount is at least understandable.

However, in the race for governor, Republican Ron DeSantis maintained more than a 33,000 vote margin over Democrat Andrew Gillum after the machine recount, which is beyond the minimum threshold required for triggering a second hand recount. And yet Gillum still refuses to concede defeat. Why?