Following a record voter turnout on election day, November 2, and a long night of ballot counting characterized by results that were too close to call, Sen. John Kerry conceded the race to President George W. Bush on November 3.

Bush won a second four-year term by a lead of 274 electoral votes to Kerry’s 252, but not before gaining Ohio’s critical 20 electoral votes, which gave Bush the minimum 270 electoral votes needed to win. Bush also led the race with 51 percent of the popular vote.

In his concession speech Kerry said he had called President Bush to congratulate him, and they discussed the “desperate need for unity.” Kerry told supporters that it’s time for the “healing” to begin, and, thanking them with heartfelt emotion, Kerry assured working families that their votes “did make a difference.”

International Brotherhood of Teamsters President Jim Hoffa and Secretary-Treasurer Tom Keegel said in a statement that this election marked “the largest member mobilization effort in the history of the union.” Although President Bush was re-elected, “we note that more than 55 million people cast their vote for a progressive agenda.” The IBT officials vowed to continue the fight for a pro-worker agenda at the national level and urged all union members to “stay engaged and work with us.”

In the same spirit, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said, “No matter who is in the White House, we’re going to take that energy, momentum, technology and field operation, and start right now building a movement that will keep turning this country around.”

Echoing the statement of labor leaders, Kerry’s running mate, Sen. John Edwards, emphasized that “the fight has just begun to build one America.”

That fight includes milestones like the unprecedented voter-registration drives and get-out-the-vote actions spearheaded by the IBT with the AFL-CIO and armies of activists who are fed up with stagnant wages, the slack job market, skyrocketing health-care costs, a weak economic recovery that only favors the wealthy, and a war that’s spinning out of control. “The battle rages, said Edwards, “in homes, churches, and union halls.”

As the Bush administration enters its second term in January, it “must find common cause,” said Kerry, and “compassion,” if it is to “bridge the partisan divide.”