Gillespie trailed Warner by 16,000 votes on Election Day. Gillespie: No plan to run for Va. gov

SPRINGFIELD, Va. — Ed Gillespie, who nearly pulled off an upset in Virginia’s Senate race, conceded the battle Friday to Democratic incumbent Mark Warner.

The former Republican National Committee head also told POLITICO this week that he isn’t planning to run for governor, despite predictions he would do so if he failed to reach the Senate.


Gillespie trailed Warner by 16,000 votes on Election Day, a 0.8 percent margin. Most observers expected Warner to prevail, and the senator retained Democratic election lawyer Marc Elias in preparation for a potential recount.

( PHOTOS: Election Day 2014)

The unexpectedly close contest led to hand-wringing in GOP circles about what might’ve been if they’d just poured more money or resources into the Virginia race. The GOP wave that swept the nation Tuesday, combined with a seemingly complacent Warner camp, nearly carried Gillespie’s longshot bid over the line.

But Gillespie acknowledged Friday that Warner’s lead appeared likely to hold, noting that it had grown to nearly 17,000 as votes were canvassed. The Associated Press called the race in Warner’s favor as Gillespie was conceding.

“I’ve called Mark Warner this morning to congratulate him on his reelection, to thank him for his public service for our Commonwealth,” Gillespie said in a news conference in this Washington, D.C., suburb.

He added that he did not think a recount would make a difference. “If I believed there were any conceivable way that we could find a viable way to win through a recount, I’d fight as hard as I have,” he said. “In my head and in my heart, I know that a change in outcome is not possible.”

( Senate results by state)

Gillespie also thanked supporters, noting that “many of them were tea party voters who were initially skeptical of my candidacy … their concerns are my concerns and my concerns are theirs.”

“These patriotic Americans are often wrongly marginalized and even demonized in the media,” said Gillespie, who left the news conference without taking questions.

The governor’s seat in Virginia is currently held by Democrat Terry McAuliffe, who, according to state law, is not eligible to run for a second consecutive term. But Gillespie said in an interview Thursday that he has no designs on the job.

“There are a lot of people thinking about running for governor in 2017. And I’m not one of them,” Gillespie said.

( WATCH: Election Day 2014 videos)

Asked about the speculation that he took on the long-shot Senate bid to set himself up for the governor’s race, Gillespie argued that talk was driven by a hungry media.

“Content must be provided. And so people have to provide content,” he said. “And this is what people do in this click driven media environment. Instead of just reporting the facts as they are, you’ve got to make some stuff up that might get some clicks on your website.”

Gillespie in the interview also demurred when asked if he’d consider another Senate run in 2018, when Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine’s term is up. “I’ve got one campaign in me. This was my campaign. And I feel like we’ve done it really really well,” he said.

The results in the 2014 Senate race also drew renewed focus on the wildly inaccurate polls that showed Warner — a popular politician who cast himself as a moderate — winning by a wide margin. Even Republican pollsters missed the mark. Republicans lamented that the errant polls may have diminished enthusiasm for Gillespie’s bid and hurt his chances.

Earlier Friday, RNC Chairman Reince Priebus said he was baffled by how public pollsters botched the race so badly. Priebus also said he had spoken with Gillespie a day earlier, but that Gillespie hadn’t foreshadowed his plans to drop out. Priebus said the RNC had been prepared “with whatever we can do to help” Gillespie.

Exit polls suggested that as many as a third of all voters in Virginia hadn’t made up their minds until October, and many of them were undecided until the final few days of the race. The bulk likely broke toward Gillespie, catching Democrats off-guard.