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Bush Looks to Next Term, Kerry Concedes

In the Oval Office, President Bush receives a call from Sen. John Kerry conceding the election. Credit: White House
In the Oval Office, President Bush receives a call from Sen. John Kerry conceding the election. Credit: White House

President George Bush captures re-election in the 2004 presidential race, winning a majority of the electoral vote. Bush delivered his victory speech at the Ronald Reagan Federal Building in Washington, D.C., looking forward to a "season of hope" for the country. His campaign Wednesday emphasized Bush's strong re-election numbers, which included a margin of more than 3.5 million popular votes.

Sen. John Kerry held out hope for a victory through Wednesday morning, hoping that uncounted provisional ballots in Ohio could help him gain the necessary electoral votes. But as information from Ohio flowed in, the Democratic challenger's campaign realized defeat was inevitable. Kerry gave his concession speech from Faneuil Hall in Boston, calling for healing and unity. Hear NPR's Don Gonyea and NPR's Scott Horsley.

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

You're most likely to find NPR's Don Gonyea on the road, in some battleground state looking for voters to sit with him at the local lunch spot, the VFW or union hall, at a campaign rally, or at their kitchen tables to tell him what's on their minds. Through countless such conversations over the course of the year, he gets a ground-level view of American elections. Gonyea is NPR's National Political Correspondent, a position he has held since 2010. His reports can be heard on all NPR News programs and at NPR.org. To hear his sound-rich stories is akin to riding in the passenger seat of his rental car, traveling through Iowa or South Carolina or Michigan or wherever, right along with him.
Scott Horsley is NPR's Chief Economics Correspondent. He reports on ups and downs in the national economy as well as fault lines between booming and busting communities.
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