Sen. Bill Nelson, a Florida political icon who first arrived on Capitol Hill in the decades when Democrats dominated this presidential battleground state, conceded his bitterly close re-election bid to Republican Rick Scott after a bruising recount left Nelson thousands of votes short of the outgoing governor.

Nelson gave up his quest after days of tense and often acrimonious recounting wrapped up at midday Sunday, when Florida’s counties had to turn in their official results. Florida will not officially certify the final results until Tuesday, but the totals showed Nelson trailing Scott by more than 10,000 votes.