Rep. Mike Lawler concedes to Cait Conley

Because they all deserve to be recognized for the work that they've done over the past six years, especially the last four in Congress. And I would not be in this position without my staff I never would have gotten elected and never would have been able to serve. And so, in no particular order, but I'm just going to run through it very quickly. Ciro, Matt, Kayla, Jack, Alex, Will, Braille, Eamon, Matt, Jonathan, Deionis, Blaine. Everybody that worked on the campaign team, and there were several that really went above and beyond and wore multiple hats in my orbit, but they ran a great race, and I would say despite the result, this was the best congressional campaign in the entire country from the start to the end. I want to thank all of my official staff in both Washington and in our district offices. James, Rafi, Courtney, Donna, Ava, Erin, Matt, Shelby, Scott, Kenzie, Caroline, Anya, Jake, Seema, Anna, Darlene, Frankie, Aiden, Julie, Ann, Ashton, and Sean and Louis who traveled with me, who looked out for me, who made sure that I was safe at all times. I really thank all of you. We also have some former staff that is here tonight, Kevin and Will, Andrea, who's also a big help, thank you, I want to thank Chris Russell, my general consultant, and former business partner, Elizabeth's godfather, but a tremendous friend, and I would never have run for office without his support and his guidance, and wouldn't have been here without him. So I want to thank Chris for all of his leadership. Nate Soule, who was employee number one when I ran for the assembly. Thank you, family. You've been with me on this journey every step of the way. I really would not have been here without Nate, so thank you, Nate. Brendan, Tom Dunham, Rafi Svi, our finance team, Annie, Mabel, Aaron, Hannah, Ken, and Ainsley, they did a great job. We raised over $14 million this cycle. Here in Rockland, there's so many people to thank, but I especially want to thank Lauren Marie Wolfe for her leadership here in Rockland and for all of her hard work. I want to thank the Conservative Party, Sam Neiman and Demetria Neiman. Thank you for your leadership. I want to thank Ed Cox, the state Republican chair, who really, I definitely would never have been in this position without Ed giving me the opportunity way back when as an intern on the McCain campaign and then ultimately as his executive director. I want to thank Speaker Johnson and Speaker McCarthy, both of whom were tremendous help to me. I want to thank Tom Emmer, our Whip, Steve Solis, our Majority Leader, and Richard Hudson, our NRCC Chair, all of them exceptionally supportive. I also want to thank Dan Conzen and James Flair and Susie Wiles, all of whom really went above and beyond to help me in this. I am exceptionally proud of my record, except me. Thank you very much. And despite, despite the election results tonight, I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to have served in this capacity, to have represented the community that I was born and raised in, that I am raising my family in, to be given the opportunity to be your voice in Washington, to fight for you every single day. You know, as Ed Koch famously said, if you agree with me on 9 out of 12 things, vote for me. If you agree with me on 12 out of 12 things, have your head examined. We don't have to agree on everything. And by the way, we shouldn't. That's the whole point of a constitutional republic. That's the whole point of a democracy. We're supposed to have robust debate and discussion. And I have tried every day to engage in that debate, that discussion. And to work tirelessly to make sure that this district, this community, this county was represented and heard.