In the shocker of yesterday's busy primary day (see related story), 12-term Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.) has been dealt a stunning defeat at the hands of veterinarian Ted Yoho, a political neophyte who identifies with the tea party but whose previous political experience doesn't go much beyond his membership in the Florida Association of Equine Practitioners.

In the end, neither Stearns' $2.75 million campaign war chest nor his status as a rising House GOP leader and key critic of President Obama were enough to secure victory in a low-turnout primary in a district that Stearns moved into after the decennial redistricting process chopped up his old district.

Stearns, who is known in environmental circles for leading the House Energy and Commerce Committee's investigation into the failed solar energy company Solyndra, conceded defeat just after noon today.

"It has been an honor, privilege, and the high calling of my life to serve the many outstanding citizens of Florida in our nation's capital," Stearns said in a statement. "I will leave the House of Representatives with a joyful heart and the satisfaction that I did all I could to advance the conservative cause. It is time for me to return to my family and explore new directions."

The latest totals from Florida's Division of Elections put Yoho's lead at 764 votes in a race that saw only 63,288 votes cast. It was enough to put Yoho several hundred votes outside the margin that would trigger an automatic recount in the Sunshine State. Two-term state Sen. Steve Oelrich and Clay County Clerk of Courts James Jett finished well behind Stearns in the primary.

Yoho's entire campaign can be summed up in the lone campaign commercial he chose to run.

The ad, which ran in just two of the four media markets in the new 3rd District, features three men in suits wallowing in mud with several pigs.

"Career politicians are like pigs feeding at the trough. Career politicians got us into this mess, but all they do is throw mud at each other," a narrator says.

Yoho, who also pledges in the ad to keep to an eight-year term limit if elected, started airing the ad three weeks ago in the Jacksonville and Gainesville media markets. Yoho's ad campaign coincided with a sharp increase in attacks between the Stearns camp and Oelrich.

The primary was never a particularly friendly one -- it kicked off in March with Jett accusing Stearns of trying to bribe him out of the race. But Oelrich and Stearns saved their toughest shots for each other as Oelrich claimed Stearns sought earmarks for the college where his wife works and Stearns accused Oelrich of lying about wounds received during his career in law enforcement.

Yoho said in an interview earlier this week that he knew he had support from tea party conservatives in the massive new district but that his campaign benefited in the late stages from voters being turned off by all the attack ads.

Kat Cammack, Yoho's campaign manager, offered more details this morning about how much the mudslinging helped her candidate. She noted that internal polling showed Yoho getting a 17-point jump in the past two and a half weeks.

"When they started attacking each other, they brought each other down just enough [for Yoho] to pull it out," Cammack said. "It was a perfect cocktail."

Throughout the 3rd District contest, it was widely believed that the GOP stronghold of Clay County would decide the Republican primary. In the end, Stearns won Clay easily, but the county ended up accounting for only 35 percent of the vote across the district. And of the 12 other counties in the new district, Stearns won only one other, Marion, which had been his home base until the redistricting process cut away the part of that county that included his house.

Yoho, meanwhile, racked up large margins in the 11 other counties that accounted for about 55 percent of the primary vote.

With his defeat, Stearns, who took over the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations when Republicans regained control of the House in 2010, will likely be best remembered for his Solyndra probe as well as his controversial investigation into Planned Parenthood.

"I am disappointed that I won't be able to continue my investigations of the Obama administration such as the risky loan guarantee to Solyndra and holding Planned Parenthood accountable to the taxpayers," Stearns said in his statement. "There is so much left to do in conducting oversight over the White House and the President's growing expansion of government into our lives."

One of Stearns' final pieces of legislation will be the "No More Solyndras Act" aimed at winding down the controversial Department of Energy loan guarantee program that funded Solyndra to the tune of $535 million.

Last month, Energy and Commerce ranking member Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) called that piece of legislation a "political bill" designed to keep Solyndra in the news during an election year.

One Democratic strategist involved in the Solyndra investigation said there's a lesson to be learned in Stearns' loss.

"It is a serious reminder for members of both parties that prioritizing political investigations over the economic challenges facing the country can be a career-ending gamble," the strategist said.