5 Days After Losing by 14 Points, Gov Candidate Concedes

A candidate for governor who made a name for himself denying the outcome of the 2020 election has conceded his own defeat in Pennsylvania. Republican Doug Mastriano, backed by former President Trump, officially threw in the towel Sunday night, five days after the election he lost by 14 points, reports the Hill. "Difficult to accept as the results are, there is no right course but to concede, which I do, and I look to the challenges ahead," Mastriano said in a statement. "Josh Shapiro will be our next Governor, and I ask everyone to give him the opportunity to lead and pray that he leads well."

The statement is a marked "shift in tone" for Mastriano, who earlier on Sunday had retweeted a supporter's claims of a "corrupt" election, notes the Philadelphia Inquirer. He will continue in his role as a state senator. Shapiro, for his part, hadn't sounded fazed by Mastriano's prior reluctance to concede. “I mean, who cares if he calls, right? He doesn’t get to pick the winner, the people pick the winner,” Shapiro said on CNN Sunday. Democrats also took the other big race in the state (the Senate contest between John Fetterman and Mehmet Oz), which CNBC notes has sizable numbers of Black and Latino Democrats as well as older white working-class voters. (More Doug Mastriano stories.)