BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Republican Eddie Rispone says he’s disappointed at losing the Louisiana governor’s race but he’s thankful for his family and supporters and vowed to continue to work to improve the state.

Rispone spoke late Saturday in Baton Rouge after losing to the incumbent, Democrat John Bel Edwards.

He called on supporters to give a round of applause for President Donald Trump, noting that the president came down three times to the state to campaign.

Speaking of the president, Rispone said: “That man loves America and he loves Louisiana.”

CBS News noted that like other Republican gubernatorial candidates this year in Kentucky and Mississippi, Rispone leaned heavily on his Trump connection and touted himself as a conservative businessman outsider on the campaign trail on Friday.

“The citizens of Louisiana, they are tired of being last. They really have wakened up and said we don’t have to be last,” Rispone said Friday in Shreveport during one of his final campaign stops before election day. “God has blessed this state with incredible natural resources, most of all our people, and it’s time for a change. We can be number one in the south when it comes to jobs and opportunity.” Voters in attendance told CBS News there was appeal in a businessman running the state government. 

Edwards ended up with a roughly one percent win over Rispone. Unofficial results from Louisiana’s secretary of state show a turnout of 1.4 million, about 39 percent of the state’s 3.56 million voting age population, according to the Federal Register.

At his concession speech, Rispone said he was disappointed and thanked his supporters, as well as Mr. Trump.