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Andrew Gillum Withdraws Concession In Florida Governor's Race

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TALLAHASSEE (CBSMiami) – Andrew Gillum is back in the race. During a Saturday afternoon news conference, the democratic candidate in the Florida governor's race withdrew his concession, just hours after Secretary of State Ken Detzner ordered the recount of the Governor's race and two other state races.

"I am replacing my words of concession with an uncompromised and unapologetic call we count every single vote," said Gillum. "I've got to imagine that if the shoe were on the other foot of my opponents, not one of them would seek a different outcome, not one of them would stand in the way of counting every vote."

Gillum adds that counting every vote is the American way.

He had previously conceded to former GOP Rep. Ron DeSantis on Election night telling tearful supporters, "We recognize that we didn't win this tonight."

Gillum said Saturday, "I am prepared to accept whatever the outcome is of this election so long as every single vote in this process is counted."

Gillum says he just wants a fair process to take place.

"Today a state mandated machine recount will commence in the 67 counties all across the state of Florida. Our team has organized a cognate of hundreds of volunteers and lawyers to spread out all across the state of Florida to ensure to a fair and an accurate count in this process."

Saturday, DeSantis had a 33,684-vote lead over Gillum according to the latest unofficial count for a lead of .41%.

RELATED STORY: HOW FLORIDA RECOUNTS WORK

Because the margin was within the half-point margin that triggers an automatic machine recount, Detzner ordered a recount for the governor race, as well as recounts for the close U.S. Senate and agricultural commissioner races.

In the Senate race, Republican Gov. Rick Scott leads incumbent Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson by more than 12,500 votes, or about .15%.

In the narrowest contest, Democratic agriculture commissioner Nikki Fried's advantage stands at 5,326 votes — just .06% — over Republican Matt Caldwell.

Machine vote results are due Thursday, while hand recount tallies are due by Sunday, Nov. 18. More than 8 million ballots were cast in Florida.

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