Thread by @daveweigel

Elder takes the stage shortly after 10 pm. "I want to thank my brilliant campaign staff..."

Elder thanking staff by name, thanking surrogates like Betty Chu and Gloria Romero. "She's a Democrat - hopefully a recovering Democrat, we will see."

ELDER CONCEDES

"Let's be gracious in defeat," Elder says. "We may have lost the battle, but we are going to win the war."

"The reason we started this campaign was that this man, Gov. Gavin Newsom, was sitting at the French Laundry restaurant, with lobbyists who contributed to his campaign."

Elder giving highlights from his stump speech, from his focus on school choice to Barbara Boxer's mugging as an example of rising crime, to the rising cost of housing.

This speech sounds a little like a 2022 opening act - Elder had told @MajorCBS that he intended to stay in politics.

Elder repeats that he's lost the election, but casts things forward: "We are forcing them now to pay attention to the problem of homelessness. We are forcing them now to do a better job on schools."

Elder criticizes media coverage that did not give big play to the gorilla-mask-egg-thrower, but says he will never play the race card. "As far as I'm concerned after we elected the first Black president, everything else is anti-climactic."

Elder continues to give lines that he worked out on the trail, much of it about the bogusness of "systemic racism," quoting Obama on how he didn't blame racism for votes against him. "When he walked into office, he had 70 percent approval."

Elder now going over the 2009 controversy over Obama criticizing police for arresting Henry Louis Gates. "The Cambridge police acted stupidly - remember that?"

"If I had a son, he would have looked like Trayvon. What does that mean?" "He embraced this bogus Black Lives Matter movement. He made things worse."

If Elder wraps soon, he'll have spent half of his concession speech talking about race and saying that Democrats exploit racial division without solving problems. Themes from a nearly four-decade commentary career that didn't change during the campaign.

"Critical race theory and reparations are not the answer. Knock it off! Our movement is about bringing people together and dealing with the problems we have."

"When you consider we were outspent by a factor of five, six, seven, to one - I wasn't running against Gavin Newsom, I was running against the left-wing media... and we still scared the bejesus out of them."

Elder citing polls from July to say "a majority of Latinos want him [Newsom] out." Per exit poll, Latinos went 58-42 against recall - worse than Newsom did in 2018, but a clear majority.

Elder says the media will begin asking him what he'll do next. "As a former radio host, let me just say this: Stay tuned!"

Elder bringing his campaign team onstage, saying their names.

"Democrats for Elder, now and forever!" says former state senate Dem leader Gloria Romero.

"This is just the beginning!" says Elder.