Concession Speech Delivered by Michael Skelly
Candidate - 7th Congressional District of Texas
November 4, 2008
Thank you. Thank you so much.
I am so proud of what we accomplished. I just got off the phone with Congressman Culberson and congratulated him on winning a close race.
It’s not easy losing, but when we got into this race, we knew it would be a long shot. We knew the odds we were up against.
Still, we came closer to winning this seat than anyone ever thought possible. For that, there are many to thank.
Let me start with family.
Thank you to Anne. We knew this would be a team effort from the get-go. But we’d never done anything quite like this together before. My biggest fear in getting into this race was that we’d end on different paths.
In fact, the opposite happened. I came to love and appreciate Anne in countless new ways.
Anne has been the steady voice throughout the campaign. Anne has offered up the reasoned perspective – from her insistence that we do a poll to see if the race was winnable (duh!), to her calm manner in keeping everyone on task. When we got into this campaign, we wanted to run a race we could be proud of. A race that was true to who we are. Anne made absolutely certain that that happened, and for that I know that you are just as grateful as I am.
Thank you Anne.
I want to thank our kids. We are first and foremost parents, and Anne and I worried about what it would mean for our kids. We feared grades would suffer and homework would slip, and once in a while it did. But more than anything learning went through the roof. Newspapers got read. Questions asked. And our kids learned the political process with us.
Now Oliver, he is our most gregarious child, the kid who knows every other kid in the neighborhood. I can’t count the times I’d meet someone who’d say “oh, yeah, you are Oliver’s dad”. Oliver, I think if you were just a few years older you’d have met everyone in this district and this would be a lay-up. Maybe there’s a political future here….
Now for all of you kids who have embarrassing parents or for you parents who are impossibly embarrassing to your children, what could be more embarrassing than having your dad run for Congress? Sophia, at 12 there couldn’t be anything worse! And then to come up here tonight Sophia, and talk about it some more. Sophia, you weathered the storm of strangers in the house. And I think it was that “all the time” eye roll and giggle in the first ad that almost won us the election.
And let me tell you a great story about campaigning and kids. We got a call at the campaign HQ the other day from a guy who called in to say that he was a lifelong Republican, and there was no way he could ever vote for a Democrat. But Kieran, our sixteen year-old, had knocked on his door the day before, and he was calling to say that even though he wasn’t going to vote for us, he wanted to tell the candidate that he and his wife were raising some fine children.
Thank you Sophia, Kieran and Oliver.
Now all you family teams out there, I want you to raise your hands. All you folks where both adults and children together have gotten behind this campaign. And just as this campaign has helped bring our family together, I know it’s done the same for many of yours as well. Families like the Linardi’s, the Ansells, the Brewers, the Shoebothams, the Atkins, the Roys, the Matins, the Wallaces, the Esfahanis, the Ashby’s, the Gonzalez’, the Zilkha’s and countless others, where entire families have come out to support the idea of a new kind of politics, a new voice for leadership, a new approach of working together to solve problems.
Thank you to all the families out there who supported me and this campaign.
And let me thank my parents. When my parents set sail from Ireland 43 years ago aboard the S.S. America, they had little idea what was in store for them in this strange country. Well, my parents took a chance on this country, and this country took a chance on them. Do y’all happen to remember how much money my dad had when he landed in the US? What was that again? You know, five immigrant kids can be a burden on your school system and on your social services. Think of all those student loans to get us through college. But two things worked. This country accepted our family despite my parents’ funny accents, and it invested in my family. Today, these five immigrant children include a social worker at the Veterans Administration, a banker, the Palo Alto, California school superintendent, and an engineer with General Electric, and well, a guy who almost got elected to Congress.
But like so many before them, and so many after them, especially in cities like Houston, Texas, my immigrant parents worked hard. My mom worked full time with five kids for 30-some years, and she had dinner on the table like clockwork every day at 5:30. Even though we weren’t allowed to watch TV growing up, three of us still managed to get into Harvard. And my dad’s legendary frugality helped pay for it all. Come to think of it, maybe that’s where those 200 dollars went!
Mother and Pops – thank you for everything you have done for us five kids.
Stories like my family’s story have been written and told countless times across this land, and in this wonderful city. It’s the secret sauce that is the true engine of American exceptionalism, and it’s Houston, Texas’ ability to bring in new people and make them part of our town’s success that sets Houston apart.
You know, they say there is no harder working candidate than a Democrat in a Republican leaning district. Well, let me tell you, there is no harder working campaign than this one right here. This is a campaign team that was up before dawn every day and at the office until God knows when every evening.
This is a campaign team that despite all the pundits saying this race would be lost by huge margins, they poured their hearts and souls into this effort. Most of them had little to no experience in politics. And you know, naďveté can be a pretty good thing in the right hands and with the right people. These kids (and I can call them kids b/c I am twice their age on average) completely ignored the conventional wisdom and decided that if they put their hearts, bodies and souls behind the effort, they could make a serious run at an entrenched incumbent. And they were right. I never once heard anyone complain about the 100 hour weeks these kids put in.
Anne and I are immensely grateful to this team. We are immensely proud of the lesson they will carry from this campaign. If you work hard, set your eyes on a prize, stay true to who you are, you can have an immense impact. We come away from this race inspired and motivated. You have proven that despite all the gerrymandering from the political class, there ain’t no such thing as a “safe seat.”
Campaign team – we couldn’t have done anything without you, and we can never thank you enough.
But this team, and Anne and I, would be nowhere without our volunteers and donors. Volunteers and donors have made this race happen. You believed when no one else did. We are just the lucky recipients of your tireless efforts. The most gratifying part of this campaign for Anne and me has been the incredible explosion of support from across this district. I’m a business guy, so let me throw some numbers at you, because these numbers are unprecedented.
We have been knocking on doors since February. In the last four months alone, we made over 150,000 phone calls. Since July, we have knocked on over 30,000 doors.
So thank you to all of you with blistered feet and cauliflower ear. Without you, we’d never have gotten our message out there and this campaign would never have gotten off the ground.
You know, my opponent repeatedly accused me of trying to buy this election. Well, let me just share a little number with you. 3384. That’s right, 3384. That’s how many different individuals contributed to this race. These 3384 people ranged from retired teachers who dug deep for $100 to middle class donors who couldn’t afford the $2300 checks they wrote.
When we were getting into this race, we were told we’d need to raise $2 million to make it competitive. We made the list of who might be able to contribute, and we came up short. And then something happened. Our friends dug deeper than was probably prudent. And people started coming out of the woodwork. People I’d never spoken with called up to say “hey, I like what you’re saying, I want to help out.”
We have some big challenges ahead in our country. Too many of our children are uninsured. Our economy is in dire straits, and our financial markets are upside down. Our educational system is not meeting the challenges of a globally competitive marketplace. In energy, we are beginning the slow process of moving towards a more sustainable future. There are no easy answers out there, and we are going to have to work hard, and work together, to address these challenges.
No single person has all the answers to these challenges. But I can tell you this, Houston Texas is going to continue to play a part in addressing them.
You showed that with this campaign. You are the solution going forward.
No one likes to lose, especially a guy from a family as intensely competitive as mine. But the defeat is softened because we have so much to be proud of.
We ran an ethical campaign on the issues. We tapped the energy of this district. We were all part of an important discussion about how we can move this country forward again. I hope you are as proud of yourselves as I am to be associated with you.
I am honored, humbled and energized by your support. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
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Michael Skelly can be contacted via email at
michaelpskelly@gmail.com ,