Coakley on defeat: ‘I feel like we both won’

After losing a tight Massachusetts governor’s race to Republican Charlie Baker Tuesday night, Democrat Martha Coakley addressed supporters at her Somerville campaign headquarters saying she was grateful for their time and energy.

Coakley approached the podium to a long applause at 11 a.m.

She thanked elected officials who “went above and beyond to make sure… we’d get our vote out, we’d get our message out, and I can not thank them enough…” and thanked her campaign team, saying, “You guys rock!”

“I spoke with Charlie Baker last night I want to thank him for his graciousness,” she said. “We were up, we were down, we were in, we were out…I think I knew going in it was going to be a lot closer than I think Charlie Baker did.”

“I feel like we both won,” she said, describing it as a priviledge to run on the Democratic ticket and meet voters across the state.

Coakley got emotional addressing all the young women who supporter her campaign or are thinking about running for office.

“It’s important that you do it. It’s important that you lean in,” she said “For every woman who didn’t get the job she wanted, or didn’t get the promotion, or who run the race and lost, I say get right back at it. “

Just after midnight Tuesday, when media outlets began calling the race for Baker, Coakley declined to comment to reporters. Her campaign said she had waited until all the votes were in and counted before she conceded.

Coakley called Baker at 8:15 a.m. Wednesday to concede and to congratulate him. “I look forward to helping you in anyway I can,” Coakley said she told Baker.

Baker is the first Republican governor since Mitt Romney left office in 2007.