Bergman’s challenger, Lon Johnson tried to make change in the Republican-controlled first congressional district.
It has been that way since 2011 when Republican Dan Benishek was voted in.
9&10’s Caroline Powers sat down with Lon Johnson to hear his feelings on the final results.
It was a busy night at the top of the Park Place Hotel as local Democrats gathered to watch results from the 2016 election come in.
People piled into the room all night for the Grand Traverse Democrats’ Election Night Party.
They were cheering on Hillary Clinton and a number of local candidates.
All eyes were on the Michigan’s first congressional district race.
But at the end of the night, Democrat Lon Johnson addressed the crowd giving his concession speech.
He congratulated Lieutenant General Jack Bergman on winning the race.
He says even though they lost this, the fight will continue to protect social security, Medicare and VA benefits.
"We still feel an obligation here. We’ve got over 200,000 social security recipients. We have over 60,000 veterans, over 35,000 students,” Johnson said. “We have oh Great Lakes to protect and you know we built a strong organization and we hope to work with our elected leaders and continue to fight for those things."
Johnson says he would not have made it this far in the race if it wasn’t for his great volunteers and supporters.
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