Daily Kos Elections Morning Digest: Patrick Murphy is victorious as Allen West finally concedes

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' FL-18: Amazing! After all that mishugas involving recounts and re-recounts and multiple trips to court, GOP Rep. Allen West has finally conceded to Democrat Patrick Murphy. Of all the big Democratic wins on election night, this to me is one of the sweetest. Sure, West is crazy, but crazy has a lot of adherents in this country, especially in an almost perfectly divided district like this one. What's more, West raised an insane $17 million, and while a much of that was due to his extremely high burn rate, that still left him with a fortune to spend.

Meanwhile, a lot of Beltway types were very dismissive toward Murphy, a young first-time candidate they were all too willing to view the same way West did, as some kind of entitled upstart. He never was. I admit that when we first heard about him'then a 28-year-old accountant'we had him figured for a proverbial Some Dude and even took to calling him "no, not that" Patrick Murphy to distinguish from the much better-known former congressman from Pennsylvania. But Murphy quickly wowed us with his fundraising, and he turned out to be a strong campaigner.

What's more, when redistricting gave West the opportunity to move up the coast and seek reelection in the redder 18th instead of his native 22nd, Murphy made an enormously daring move and pursued West on to this tougher turf. Not only did that give Democrats a credible candidate to keep holding West's feet to the fire, but it avoided an expensive primary with fellow Dem Lois Frankel in the 22nd (who went on to win her own open-seat race). And while Murphy, as you may know, was a Republican not long before seeking office, he turned out to be a strong progressive, showing quite a lot of backbone in a swing district like this.

Murphy, now 29, will become one of the youngest members of Congress, so here's to many, many more years to come. Again, an amazing victory! And Congressman-elect (man do I love saying that!) Murphy even took the time to stop by Daily Kos on Tuesday morning to offer his thanks to the community here. What a mensch!