On Sunday, Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida conceded his re-election bid to Republican Rick Scott, the state's current governor.
Nelson spent four decades in politics, starting in the Florida state House, then going to space on the Space Shuttle Columbia as a congressman in 1986 before being elected to the U.S. Senate in 2000. Scott led Nelson by about 12,000 votes after ballots were first counted, a margin so close that it triggered a mandatory recount. After a second machine recount was finished, a manual recount was ordered late last week, and by that time Scott's lead had dropped slightly to 10,033. There were almost 8.2 million votes cast.
This was the most expensive Senate race in Florida history, the Miami Herald reports, with Scott spending more than $50 million of his own money on his campaign.
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