By Mandi Rice, St. Louis Public Radio
ST. LOUIS – Nearly a week after a tight election, Ed Martin has conceded to Russ Carnahan in Missouri's third congressional district. Martin informed his supporters by e-mail Monday morning.
Martin said that he waited to concede because of concerns about election irregularities, including problems with the state's election database.
"We just wanted to answer those questions," Martin said, "At this point we're trailing by 4,400 votes, which is enough votes that it's hard to imagine some of the problems we discovered really changing the result."
Martin also said that his campaign against incumbent Russ Carnahan showed that a Republican could make a strong stand.
"This is a district that's always supposed to remain in the hands of the incumbent, no matter whether it was Dick Gephardt or Russ Carnahan," Martin said. "The idea that we got so close and had such incredible energy and excitement is a real tribute to the volunteers and to the voters and to our efforts to give people a choice."
Final tallies show Carnahan won the race by two percent. Carnahan released a statement Monday afternoon wishing his opponent the best.