A pro-Trump candidate who lost the race for US Congress in a heavily democratic Florida district this week is refusing to concede and is blaming his nearly 60 point defeat on election fraud.
Democrat Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick won Tuesday night’s special election for Florida’s 20th congressional district to replace U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, who died of pancreatic cancer last April. Cherfilus-McCormick won nearly 79% of the vote while the Republican candidate Jason Mariner captured less than 20%.
The result was expected as the district is heavily democratic. President Biden received 77% of the votes there in the 2020 presidential election.
Despite this, Mariner is refusing to concede the election.
“Now they called the race, I did not win, so they say, but that does not mean that they lost either, it does not mean that we lost,” Mariner said according to CBS Miami.
The outlet noted that Mariner filed a lawsuit several hours before the polls were even closed alleging there is a problem with the ballots in Palm Beach and Broward Counties and now claims to “have some stuff coming out that we’ve recently discovered.”
Cherfilus-McCormick does not need Mariner to concede to be sworn into Congress where she will be the first Haitian American to represent Florida, according to the Washington Post.