Populist Democratic candidate Larry Kissell has conceded his race for the 8th District congressional seat held by textile heir Rep. Robin Hayes:
“The fight for the future of this district is too important to postpone another day. That’s why I’m running for Congress in 2008 starting right now,” Kissell said in a statement. “After today’s recounts, I offer U.S. Rep. Hayes a belated congratulation for his victory now that the votes have been counted.”
Kissell conceded even though only five of the ten counties in the district had completed the hand recount requested by the Democrat. The rest were to conduct the hand recounts on Thursday.
Kissell trailed Hayes by just 329 votes out of 121,523 cast following a machine recount last week. He gained only two votes Wednesday during the first phase of the hand recount, during which election officials manually recount votes in a sample of precincts covering 3 percent of the votes cast in the race.
Rep. Hayes has a record of voting for trade deals that have moved textile jobs from his district overseas — despite the fact that his family built a fortune in the textile industry in the region a century ago.
I would be curious to know why the Kissell campaign feels like it fell short in this race and how that will impact campaign strategy 2008. Since Kissell couldn’t take the 8th this year, of ALL years, I can’t imagine why he will be a great choice two years from now. Maybe Kissell can employ his political vision on a local or statewide level and get some real-world political experience before taking another stab at representing a Congressional district that SHOULD HAVE gone BLUE in ‘06.