Congratulating City Council President Brandon Scott, former mayor Sheila Dixon has conceded the 2020 Democratic mayoral primary after Scott defeated her, 29.6% to 27.5%.

Baltimore’s mayor from 2007 to 2010, Dixon sought a comeback, saying she had apologized for the corruption scandal that cut short her term in office and was now the best positioned candidate lead the city at a critical time.

“This is simply a part of the journey,” Dixon said, in an email to supporters yesterday.

“At the end of every completive journey worth pursuing there is a crossroads. One road is identified with a sign of victory and the other is a yield sign which signals us to yield to the successor,” she continued. “The latter leads us towards a victory sign within ourselves – a place that empowers and celebrates who we are regardless of the outcome.”

City elections officials, who failed to meet a Friday deadline to certify the vote, released results last week that put Scott 3,145 votes ahead of Dixon.

Dixon initially had expressed concern about the way the mostly-by-mail primary was conducted – there had been widespread reports of late, missing and erroneous ballots and long lines at in-person voting centers.

But by the weekend she was ready to bring her campaign officially to an end.

“I formally concede and offer my sincerest congratulations to a young man who is a native of this city, a product of our public schools, a young man I have watched grow in public service,” she wrote. “A young man I have conversed with on many issues and one who has secured the mayoral democratic nomination – Brandon M. Scott.”