TEAUPEDERIE, Wilk. -- Just 768 votes. That's how many votes pushed Conservative businessman Charlie Dunn over the edge in the Conservative primary election for governor.
Dunn, who owns an office supply company based in Teaupederie, just barely edged out Conservative Federal Sen. Bob Mellon in the race for party's nomination for governor.
In the first count, Dunn led by Mellon by almost 6,000 votes.
But Dunn led Mellon by less than one-half of one percent, which triggered an automatic recount by state elections officials.
After the recount, Dunn held just a 768-vote lead over Mellon, which state officials attributed to a few minor errors in counting, but mostly to a surge in last-minute votes for Mellon.
"We had several thousand ballots arrive by mail after election night, and most of those ballots that came in late went to Bob Mellon. He benefited greatly from a last-minute drop of ballots in his favor," said Secretary of State Hannah Meade, a Nationalist.
Some votes came from overseas and military voters too. Those ballots often arrive after election day. They're still valid votes as long as they were postmarked before election night.
In the end, Mellon conceded the race to Dunn.
"It's heart-breaking to lose this race by just 768 votes. You can't get much closer than that. Out of almost 1.3 million cast. That's pretty darn close," Mellon told supporters at a press conference in New Dunslee.
"But we've had two counts of the votes. Charlie Dunn led both counts. We closed the gap, but not enough. He's still in the lead, and it's clear there are no votes left to count. Another recount would probably not change the outcome. So I've made the difficult decision to suspend my campaign for governor. I called Charlie Dunn and conceded to him earlier this afternoon, and I ask all Wilkonshire Conservative voters to cast your ballot for him this fall," Mellon said.
After several days of holding off on declaring victory, with Mellon's concession, and a concession from former Christon Mayor Tara Hadley, who came in third place, Dunn held a televised press conference at his campaign headquarters in Teaupederie.
"I want to thank Bob Mellon and Tara Hadley for an energetic primary campaign. They both raised a lot of good issues, and really, on most issues, we have similar views. We all are Conservatives. We all want lower taxes. We all want small businesses to succeed. We all want government to get out of the way and let the people live their lives. We all want less bureaucracy and less federal intrusion in our state affairs. We all want individual freedom and liberty. So, I think the primary race was a great opportunity for us to discuss the things we agree on and the few areas where we have minor differences," said Dunn.
He quickly turned his attention to his NAT opponent, Lt. Gov. David Handley.
"Now we have to pivot to the fall election, where we are going up against David Handley and the Nationalist Party machine," said Dunn. "They are going to pull out all stops to beat us. They have been in power for 16 years, and they know the voters are pissed off at them, and they will twist anything we say, they will distort everything we do, they will manipulate the media and lie and make fake news up to turn the voters against us. They'll do anything to cling to power. But we are not going to back down and we are not going to be weak. We are ready for this battle. We are ready to stand strong. We are ready to convince the people of Wilkonshire that our vision for this state's future is far better, far fairer and far more attainable than the NAT, liberal, left-wing agenda that is being pushed by David Handley, Tom Durick, James Marlowe and others."
No polls on the Handley-Dunn race have been published yet, but most political commentators rank the race as a "toss-up."
***Wilkonshire Primary Election -- Conservative Race for Governor -- Official Results***
| 449,333 | 390,133 | 448,565 |
| Dunn | Hadley | Mellon |
| 34.89% | 30.29% | 34.83% |
| Total Votes: | 1,288,032 |
| VTO: 16% |
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