All right. Well, i tell you, it is, it is quite a treat to see that yall are still here. On behalf of chris and kristen, my wife, rj, our family i am here. The way we ran this race. [applause] we could not be more thankful for the support that we shown by each and every one of you all the way along this path. We recognize that, you know, we didnt win it tonight. We didnt win this transaction, but of what you all to know that is just it, a transaction, that what we believe in still holds true today. I got to tell you [applause] as a stand here on the highest of seven hills in tallahassee, florida, the campus that gave so much to me and to my wife, rj, many days for the students who were around when we were there as students, we marched plenty of signs from this very step up to the capital. Because we recognize that we had power, too. Earlier this evening, i called mr. Ron desantis and congratulated him on what we expect will be him as the next governor of the great state of florida. But i want you to know, i want you to know, i want you to know that in spite of our congratulating him on his victory this evening, nothing that we believe in is compromised. I still believe that we ought to pay teachers what theyre worth. I still believe that. I still believe that we ought to clean up our environment, our air, our water quality, our beaches, our shores. I still believe that we ought to have the kind of economy where people are able to work one job instead of two and three jobs in order to make ends meet. Im extremely proud that this evening, the voters of the state of florida decided to pass amendment 4. Proud about that. That is just one step closer to getting us where it is that we need to be as a state. Yall, i want to encourage you not to give up. I want to encourage you to stick to the fight. I want you to know that every step of this way, even though i wont have the blessing of serving as the next governor of the state of florida, i still plan to be on the front lines right alongside every single one of you, when it comes to standing up for what it is that we believe in. As i said all along the campaign trail, policy is nothing without a demand. It never has and it never will. We still have to be willing to show up every single day and demand our seat at the table. We got to be willing, inside of elections and outside of elections, to say that our voices still matter, that we still have relevance. I still believe and i still trust the voters. We may not have all shown up in the way that we thought and hoped that we would, but i still believe that there are still more of us who believe in what is common and what is decent and what is right, and i believe in the long run, good always wins out over evil. I still believe that. Many of you all along the trail heard me talk rather repeatedly about my grandmother. Someone pointed out that she was the real winner of the governors race. My grandmother who poured so much into us, because my mother and father, as i would often share, would have to get up so early in the morning and go off to work, they would load us up in the car and take us over to my grandmamas house where we would sleep just a little bit longer. And my grandmother would often have a ritual, it was a twostep ritual. The first phase of that is that she would grab her bottle of olive oil, sometimes cooking oil, whatever the shiniest oil was she could get her hands on, and she would build a cross across my forehead. It was her way of sending us out into the day with a blessing that no harm would come our way. Then she would have this refrain, where she would say boy, go to school, mind your teachers, get your lesson and one day bring that education home. She would say bring it home for your little brother or little sister who dont know what it is yet. Bring it home. Bring it home for the little boy down the street you play with. God knows where he will end up. Bring it home. Bring it home for your mama and your daddy who get out there every single day, going to work on somebody elses job in order to keep a roof over your head, and clothes on your back, and food on the table. Bring it home. As i shared with you on the campaign trail, i didnt always know what my grandmother was trying to communicate, but i would come to learn that what she was saying is that it wasnt just about me. Yall, im reminded this evening that it is not about me. That its not about my wife, not chr chris, not kristen. This is about the collective. It is about the belief that if we all do good, we can all do good, and we can do good by doing good. If we all put our oars in the water and row in the same direction, we can all get further than by ourselves. I still believe that to be true this evening, even in defeat, i believe that to be true. The question is, we have a choice to make tomorrow morning. Are we going to wake up and bask in sorrow, in defeat, or are we going to get up and reassert ourselves to the mission at hand. Are we going to get up and fight for the things that we believe in. Are we going to get up and say that we still deserve our seat at the table. Look, i said before that i believe that we have to have a table in the state that is long enough, wide enough, deep enough to fit all of us. I still believe that we got to have that table. But yall, were just going to have to do a little bit more work in order to build that table. Were going to have to do a little bit more in order to make our way to it. If theres not a chair there for us, lets pull up our own folding chair. Lets make sure that people know we plan to have a seat at this thing and that we will not be ignored, that we will not be pushed aside, that we will not be pushed into the shadows anymore. That were here and there we are here to stay. Yall, i have to tell you i am blown away by the volunteers that joined with us on the trail. Im blown away by you. This was from the very beginning an extremely, extremely difficult task. I sincerely regret that i couldnt bring it home for you. [ applause ] but, but i can guarantee you this. Im not going anywhere. Were going to fight. Were going to keep fighting. Were going to keep working. Were going to keep believing and in all of that, i believe that ultimately, we will be victorious. We will be victorious. So i want you to know on behalf of our families that were so, so, so appreciative and thankful for you, and we want you to know that were going to continue to lift our great state in prayer, were going to lift our great nation in prayer, and we believe at the end of th