Republican Joe Lhota has conceded the New York City mayoral race to his rival, Democrat Bill de Blasio.

Lhota made his speech Tuesday to supporters at the Gansevoort Park Hotel in Manhattan. He said he wouldn’t spend a moment regretting what might have been.

He said the race was a good fight, a fight worth having.

Lhota was the former chief of the metropolitan area’s transit agency and a deputy mayor under Rudolph Giuliani.

Bill de Blasio was elected New York City’s first Democratic mayor in two decades Tuesday. He ran on an unabashedly liberal, tax-the-rich platform that contrasted sharply with billionaire Michael Bloomberg’s record during 12 years in office.

(AP)