Assemblymember Evan Low conceded his 16th Congressional District bid to former San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo,  as the Associated Press, the Washington Post and NBC News called the election to succeed Congresswoman Anna Eshoo.

Low called Liccardo the evening of Nov. 6 to congratulate him, after Liccardo's big lead over Low, a fellow Democrat, had grown in one day's counting to more than 38,800 votes.

“While we await final results from the County Registrar,” Liccardo said in a statement, “I am working to put a strong team of congressional staff in place to serve our district at home and in D.C., because our community deserves a representative who can hit the ground running.”

“I thank Evan Low for his well-wishes and congratulations earlier this evening, and I was also pleased to receive a message of congratulations and support from Congresswoman Anna Eshoo," he said. "I join our community in expressing our profound gratitude for her three decades of leadership and service to our community.”

“Over the past 11 months, we focused the dialogue in our campaign on solutions to the problems our communities face, from the high cost of living to homelessness, and I’m proud of the way that our community has responded to our substantive campaign, and honored by the strong support we’ve seen,” he said.

Liccardo's campaign said the Democratic House leadership today called to invite him to fly to Washington D.C., to meet with Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and his team to discuss committee assignments and to get an office set up. Low had been endorsed by the Democratic Party.

“I want to express my deepest gratitude to every volunteer, supporter, and voter who believed in our vision for the Bay Area,” Low said in a concession statement. “Although the outcome of the election is not one we hoped for, I am proud of the people-first campaign that we ran, focusing on the very real issues that affect the daily lives of CD-16 voters. I got my start in local politics because I wanted to better the lives of everyday Americans, and I will remain committed to that mission.”

“I spoke to Sam Liccardo tonight and thanked him for a hard fought campaign,” said Low. “His success will be our success here in Silicon Valley.”

Preliminary, unofficial results in the latest published returns at 5:30pm Nov. 6 from Santa Clara and San Mateo counties showed Liccardo with 117,905 votes and Low with 79,079 votes, a  60%-40% margin. The returns today represented approximately 60% of the anticipated final vote tally in the district.

Former San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo is all smiles with his wife, Jessica Garcia-Kohl, with a 35,000-vote lead over Evan Low in the 16th Congressional District. Photo by Dan Pulcrano

The early returns did not include central San Jose, the heart of Liccardo's support. To win, Low would have had to win about 60% of the remaining ballots in those city precincts – which likely explained Liccardo's celebratory mood on election night.

Liccardo was the top vote-getter in his bid for Silicon Valley’s 16th Congressional District since the March primary.

The two-term mayor and former prosecutor slugged it out with the openly gay former Campbell mayor in a bruising two-part campaign that began nearly 11 months ago: one three-month, 11-person free-for-all followed by a second six-month stretch run that couldn’t begin in earnest until after a contentious two-month recount decided the final pairing.

The intense primary drained campaign war chests and considerable campaign energy. From the start, it was a battle for endorsements and money, where candidates’ images and resumes – rather than policy statements or campaign promises – prevailed. This was true in the primary, and for the General Election face-off.

In the primary, Low had staked out the progressive left, while Liccardo maintained a solid stance in the party's center. Low was endorsed by the Democratic Party, a range of Asian-American and LGPTQ groups and by Gov. Gavin Newsom. Liccardo benefited from a Silicon Valley PAC, a New Democratic Coalition endorsements and a $1.5 million boost from New York billionaire Michael Bloomberg.

The seat representing the sprawling 16th District, stretching from Pacifica in the northwest to Campbell and west San Jose on the south, opened up in December when Rep. Anna Eshoo announced she would not seek re-election, after more than 30 years in Congress. About 80% of the district residents live in Santa Clara County, and 20% in San Mateo County.

Before the March recount request by tech executive and former Liccardo staffer Jonathan Padilla, the 16th District was headed to a three-person November contest: Liccardo, Low and Santa Clara County Supervisor Joe Simitian.

When the dust cleared May 1 – after a roller-coaster recount of the March 5 primary votes that had been requested and funded by a former Liccardo staffer – Low had five more votes than Simitian. The two men had been tied with 30,249 votes apiece from both counties when official totals were certified April 12, five weeks after the primary, by the California Secretary of State – more than 8,000 votes behind Liccardo’s March total.

After Low was declared the victor in the recount, he and Liccardo didn't waste any time beginning the General Election campaign for the coveted Silicon Valley congressional seat.

The day that the final recount was announced, the Liccardo campaign accused Low of trying “multiple times to undermine and stop the recount process.”

Liccardo consistently took the high road in the spring recount – distancing himself from the recount request and from what many observers said was a strategy that benefitted a frontrunner – standing by “the principle that every vote should be counted."

“Despite the efforts of some to stop this recount, we should all celebrate that democracy prevailed,” Liccardo said after the May 1 announcement. “We can now re-focus on our work ahead, toward solutions to our region’s and nation’s great challenges, such as homelessness, the high cost of living, climate change, public safety, and protecting reproductive rights.”

Despite his flattery and wooing of Simitian  – Liccardo praised Simitian’s “decades of public service” as “an inspiration to me” – the county supervisor steadfastly declined to endorse either Low or Liccardo in the congressional campaign.

Likewise, Eshoo, who had endorsed Simitian in the primary, also declined to endorse either of the two finalists who competed this month.

In the primary, Liccardo tallied 21% of the total votes, compared to 17% for Low. In the summer campaign, the two men went after the more than 83,000 votes – and the money – that had gone to other candidates.