Ohio GOP congressional candidate Derek Myers, a former aide to ousted Rep. George Santos (R- New York), is causing chuckles online after accidentally conceding earlier than intended.
Myers, who accused his Santos of sexual harassment, painted himself as a “rock-solid conservative and defender of freedoms” in the crowded primary field but failed to gain significant traction. Myers also ran for office as a Democrat in 2022.
Hours before polls closed Tuesday night, Myers sent out a seemingly pre-written press release titled “Derek Myers concedes Congressional race” that congratulated the “Congressman-Elect.” The message also went on to state that Myers was looking forward to “working with him to get President Trump re-elected to the White House and evicting Joe Biden.” A link to a pre-recorded video of Myers giving his concession speech was also included.
Yet no more than 10 minutes later, another email went out, this time titled: “DISREGARD CONCESSION EMAIL.”
A third email, titled “So, you wanna know what happened, eh?,” explained that the concession email was mistakenly sent instead of saved as a draft after being uploaded into the media distribution portal. A draft declaring victory was also written, but not sent out, it said.
Myers later officially conceded just before 9 p.m. local time, releasing the same pre-recorded concession speech video sent in error earlier.
The snafu amused many social media users, some of whom cracked jokes about Myers’ performance. (He came in 11th place with only 1.5% of the vote.)
“Turns out there was no need to disregard the concession email,” quipped one person.
“bro finished 11th out of 11 candidates,” quipped someone else.
Another person mocked the concession speech video, writing: “In it, he pretends he’s answering an interview question from the local news, and plays fake party noise in the background to make it sound like he was at a real election night party.”
“Problem is: He accidentally posted it at 4pm and absolutely none of this is real. This is just him standing alone in a room,” he added.
A separate user posted a fake press release jokingly titled “WE HEBBEN EEN SERIEUS PROBLEEM.”
One user called out an unfortunate typo in Myers’ explanation email.
“The fact that this guy’s last job was as a legislative aide to George Santos should not surprise you,” wrote another user.
The winning Republican in the race, David Taylor, notched just over 25% and will go on to face Democratic candidate Samantha Meadows, who ran uncontested in the primary.
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