UPDATE: See emails from Murray and Berry below.

Congratulations to Patrick Murray, who has secured the 8th District GOP nomination to challenge Jim Moran in November!

By a vote of 52%-48%, Murray won today’s primary. We also congratulate Matthew Berry for a hard-fought campaign that came within 482 votes. 13,787 people came out to vote — that’s more than both the Republican and Democratic primaries in 2008!

To view the full results, click here.

We urge all Republicans in the 8th District to unite behind Patrick Murray as we fight to retire Jim Moran.

Also, congratulations to Keith Fimian, who was nominated by our neighbors in the 11th district to challenge Gerry Connolly.

Americans for Murray email from last night:

Dear Republican,

From the bottom of my heart, I want to thank you for the faith and trust you have shown by nominating me as your candidate to restore honor and dignity to the representation of Virginia’s 8^th District seat in Congress.  I pledge to you my best effort to reward your trust come November.

I thank Matthew Berry and his supporters. Matthew has my appreciation and congratulations on an energetic and spirited campaign.  His commitment to the Republican principles of limited government and individual responsibility energized an army of Republican voters eager for change from profligate spending policies of the Obama-Pelosi-Moran regime in Washington.

The press has taken notice there were almost 14,000 voters in this Republican Congressional Primary.  This clearly shows the high level of discontent among 8^th District voters with Jim Moran’s long record of divisive and partisan representation.

We kick off our campaign this morning on FOX5 at 9:00am this morning.  Please tune in and join the Murray Momentum as we work together to take our country back and send Jim Moran into political retirement.

Honor and Courage,

Patrick Murray

Candidate for Congress

Berry for Congress email from this morning

Friends,

I wanted to write one last time to thank you for your support.  I am extremely honored that so many of you cast your ballots for me yesterday, volunteered your time for our campaign, and donated generously to fund our effort.  There are no words to adequately express my gratitude for all that you have done; I will never forget it.

While last night’s results were not what we had hoped for, I conclude our campaign with no regrets.  I am proud that together we waged a positive, issues-oriented campaign.  As my political hero Ronald Reagan said in his 1992 speech at the Republican National Convention, I hope that people will remember our campaign as one that “appealed to your best hopes, not your worst fears, to your confidence rather than your doubts.”

Going forward, I hope that you will continue fighting for the principles that we share.

All the best,