State Sen. Mark Obenshain, the Republican candidate for Attorney General, gave up on his effort to reverse his loss through a recount and conceded defeat to Democrat Mark Herring Wednesday afternoon.

“It is apparent that our campaign is going to come up a few votes short,” Obenshain said to reporters in a late afternoon press conference in Richmond.  “Our vigorous and hard-fought fight is over.”

Obenshain sought the recount after the official election results declared him the winner by just 165 votes in November.  But his hopes to a turnaround disappeared quickly as the margin between he and Herring widened to more than 800 votes with three-quarters of the ballots counted.

“It’s over,” a dispirited Obenshain aide admitted to Blue Ridge Muse Wednesday afternoon.  “We lost.”