BREAKING NEWS MSNBC staff and news service reports
Updated: 12:12 p.m. ET Nov. 3, 2004President Bush on Wednesday emerged as the victor in the fiercely fought race for the White House after Sen. John Kerry decided against contesting the vote in the battleground state of Ohio.
Kerry's decision was relayed to NBC News by a senior adviser, who said the Democrat had phoned Bush to concede and would make a concession speech at 1 p.m. Wednesday.
According to two officials familiar with the situation interviewed by the Associated Press, Kerry ended his quest shortly after 11 a.m. ET, concluding one of the most expensive and bitterly contested races on record, with a call to the president.
"Congratulations, Mr. President," Kerry said in the conversation described by sources as lasting less than five minutes. One of the sources was Republican, the other a Democrat.
The Democratic source said Bush called Kerry a worthy, tough and honorable opponent. Kerry told Bush the country was too divided, the source said, and Bush agreed. “We really have to do something about it,” Kerry said according to the Democratic official.
Earlier, Kerry was reported to be weighing options, with running mate Sen. John Edwards counseling him to fight on until all of Ohio's votes were counted — which might not happen for almost two weeks.
One senior Democrat familiar with the discussions said Edwards, a trial lawyer, wanted to make sure all options were explored and that Democrats pursued them as thoroughly as Republicans would if the positions were reversed.
The victory gave Bush four more years to pursue the war on terror and a conservative, tax-cutting agenda — and probably the opportunity to name one or more justices to an aging Supreme Court.
He also will preside over expanded Republican majorities in the Senate and the House.
Card claims victory The Republican campaign appeared confident of victory from the early hours of Wednesday morning.
At around 6 a.m. ET, White House chief of staff Andrew Card showed up unexpectedly at a gathering of Bush supporters in Washington to declare “the president of the United States has won the state of Ohio. He said the numbers added up to a "convincing Electoral College victory.”
Unlike the 2000 election, Bush also carried the popular vote. With 98 percent of precincts reporting nationwide, the president was polling 51 percent to Kerry’s 48 percent.
Card's assertion was preceded by a statement from Edwards, who asserted that the Kerry campaign was conceding nothing. “We will fight for every vote,” he told cheering supporters in Boston. “We’ve waited four years for this victory. We can wait one more night.”
According to NBC News’ projections, Kerry won big states with large numbers of electoral votes, but Bush piled up victories in smaller states as well as the battlegrounds of Florida and Ohio.
Dispute over Ohio With 100 percent of precincts reporting, Bush led Kerry in Ohio by 51 percent to 49 percent. But the Kerry campaign initially banked on provisional and absentee ballots, which were not included in that total, to reverse the margin.
The combination could have created a legal and political tangle reminiscent of the 36-day struggle over Florida four years ago.
Provisional ballots were issued to voters whose eligibility was challenged at the polls, a procedure the Republicans pursued avidly. In an eleventh-hour blow to Democrats, Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens declined Tuesday to overturn an appeals court order clearing the way for vote challengers to be present at polling places in Ohio, where Democrats claimed that Republicans were seeking to discourage minority voters.
Bush led by about 136,000 votes. Card claimed that Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell had “informed us that this margin is insurmountable, even after provisional ballots are counted.”
There was no immediate comment from Blackwell, who had told reporters shortly after midnight that, with an estimated 175,000 provisional ballots having been cast — a number that also includes civilian and military ballots cast overseas — provisional ballots could not be counted before Nov. 13. Democrats feel the total is closer to 250,000 provisional ballots.
None had yet been assessed for their legitimacy. In 2000, when 100,000 provisional ballots were cast, about 90 percent were legitimate, Blackwell said. State law, meanwhile, allots 10 days for overseas ballots to trickle in.
