IREY CONCEDES
(MONONGAHELA, November 7) -- Washington County Commissioner and Pennsylvania 12th district Republican Congressional nominee Diana Irey this evening conceded the race to Jack Murtha, and issued the following statement at her Election Night party:
Good evening, and thank you for coming.
And before I say one more word, I want to say this --
THANK YOU, from the bottom of my heart.
THANK YOU, for your support, and your encouragement, and your pats on the back.
Thank you for welcoming me, and our entire campaign team, into your homes and your hearts.
Thank you for your hard work -- the phone calls, the yard sign runs, the door knocking in your own neighborhoods and even outside your own communities.
And … most importantly of all, thank you for your prayers.
This has been a long campaign, and a hard one.
But every day was made a bit easier by the knowledge that we were not alone -- that there were people like you out there, doing work with your own family, friends, neighbors, and coworkers, spreading our message of change.
I just got off the phone with Jack Murtha.
I called to congratulate him on his victory.
One of the glories of our democracy is this tradition -- and it's a rather odd one in the history of the world, I'll readily acknowledge -- that we spend months and months banging each other on the head, and then on Election Night we shake hands and congratulate one another.
And life goes on.
All over the world, people envy us. We settle with ballots what others are forced to settle with bullets.
And we put our own blood and treasure on the line, to bring to others the same right to determine for themselves their own futures that we take for granted.
We are the only nation in the history of the world with this tradition. When we send our young men and women abroad and put them in harm's way, we do so not for reasons of territorial conquest, or the expansion of empire, but to defend liberty and to spread freedom.
Tonight, even though we have not won this political campaign, we are winners still -- because the values we hold dear, the notion that we are a nation governed by the consent of the governed, has been reaffirmed.
This has been one of the more difficult -- but also one of the most rewarding -- experiences of my life.
I will always remember this campaign with joy.
My family and I have you to thank for that.
God bless you, and God bless the United States.