Romney adviser concedes Florida vote to Obama

A senior adviser for Mitt Romney in Florida said in a statement Thursday that President Obama had won the state, the lone remaining battleground that has not yet been called in the 2012 Election.

“The numbers in Florida show this was winnable,” Brett Doster, a senior strategist for Romney and Rep. Connie Mack, the Republican U.S. Senate nominee in the state, said in a statement obtained by the Miami Herald. “We thought based on our polling and range of organization that we had done what we needed to win. Obviously, we didn’t, and for that I, and every other operative in Florida has a sick feeling that we left something on the table. I can assure you this won’t happen again.”

As of Thursday afternoon, President Obama led the state by 55,832 votes, according to the Florida Department of State. That margin is expected to hold, and is just large enough to avoid triggering an automatic recount, although officials say they will not likely officially certify the results until Friday.

On a conference call with reporters Thursday, Obama campaign manager Jim Messina said he expected a call later in the day. Messina added that Obama appeared to have won a majority of Cuban-Americans in the state, marking a "dramatic realignment" of what had traditionally been a Republican constituency.

"Sometime today we think we will be officially the winner in Florida ... and end with 332 electoral votes," Messina said.

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