Martha Coakley Concedes Governor's Race To Charlie Baker
BOSTON (CBS) - Martha Coakley conceded defeat in the governor's race Wednesday morning, after a long night and a close race.
"At 8:15 a.m. this morning, Martha Coakley called Charlie Baker to congratulate him on his victory in the governor's race," her campaign announced in a statement.
Coakley then spoke to the media at 11 a.m. at her campaign headquarters on Middlesex Avenue in Somerville.
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"In the end, he could not have been more gracious," Coakley said of Baker, adding that she hoped all voters "will work with him to keep Massachusetts moving forward."
"I told him I'm going to hold him to his campaign promises because I have his cell phone number now," she joked.
When a reporter asked what's next, she said "lunch with my husband."
"We'll see," Coakley said, "I want to find a way to keep working for the people of Massachusetts."
Check: Governor's race results
By noon, 100-percent of the precincts had reported results and Coakley lost to Baker by just 40,040 votes.
"It's a good lesson to all of us that every vote matters," Coakley said. "It's the voters' decision that matters."
The outgoing Attorney General make a point to thank all of her staff, supporters and family.
She became emotional at one point, addressing all of the women who worked on her campaign, saying "it's important that you do it" and cited Attorney General-elect Maura Healey, Rep. Catherine Clark, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren as women who completed successful campaigns in Massachusetts.
"It was a really close race," Baker told reporters Wednesday afternoon. "I think the fact that the Coakley campaign wanted to wait until the votes were in," he said, "I thought that was a perfectly reasonable decision for them to make."
Because of the close margin, Coakley refused to give a concession speech late Tuesday night. She returned home with her husband to wait until the results were official.
Baker came out around 1 a.m. to declare himself the winner after several media outlets issued their projections.
"I talked to her a couple minutes ago and she said she really wants to wait until the morning to see the final results," Baker told his supporters at the Seaport Hotel early Wednesday morning.
"That's fine, in politics, in elections every vote counts. I'm perfectly fine with giving her until the morning."
Governor Deval Patrick joined Coakley at her event Wednesday, saying both candidates ran "spirited campaigns."
Earlier in the day, a tweet on his account went up briefly Wednesday at 6:51 a.m. congratulating the "Gov-elect & LG-elect" with a link to the Transition 2015 page of the state's website.
The tweet was pulled down minutes later with no explanation.
WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Lana Jones reports
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