Conceding to his Republican opponent, Dan Webster, Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Orlando, said that he faltered because his base didn’t turn out strongly enough to counter a strong Republican surge.
“People don’t decide to vote based on who their congressman is,” Grayson told reporters after conceding. “It goes a lot deeper than that.”
This was a wave election, in which Democrats are being swept out of office around the country, he said, adding that in order to be motivated to vote, supporters need to believe in what their party is doing.
“We did our part,” he said of his campaign.
During his speech, Grayson said the pain of electoral disappointment was nothing compared to that felt by people who had recently lost their jobs or their homes, and he called on Webster to “do everything in his power to alleviate that pain.”
According to the Florida Division of Elections, Grayson has 38 percent of the vote to Webster’s 56 percent.
