Republicans held on to their seat in Congress at the end of a contentious and expensive race in Illinois’ 13th District after The Associated Press called the election in favor of GOP candidate Rodney Davis.

But the campaign for four-time congressional candidate David Gill declined to concede the race as of press time, saying that uncounted votes could turn the tide of the election.

“From what we now know from our discussions with county clerks’ offices, there are a significant number of ballots still outstanding in Macon County,” said campaign manager Sherry Greenberg in a press release. “We believe we need to keep counting ballots.”

But as of press time, 98 percent of the precincts in the 14 counties in the new district had been counted, with 131,471 voters siding with Davis, compared to 127,662 for Gill. Independent candidate John Hartman had mustered 20,630 votes. But at 46 percent of the vote, this is the closest Gill has come to clinching the Congressional seat, after the 2010 redistricting that observers said made the new 13th district significantly more competitive for Democrats. In 2010, Gill lost to incumbent Tim Johnson, R-15, with only 36 percent of the vote.

The competitiveness of this district was driven by the amount of outside spending that flowed into the district — more than $7 million of it. Leading those numbers was the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which gave $2.76 million for advertisements opposing Davis. The conservative group American Action Network Inc. had spent about $1.48 million on advertisements opposing Gill.

The candidates still raised money on their own; as of the most recent Federal Election Commission report released Oct. 17, Davis received more than $1 million and spent more than $840,000. Gill also received more than $1 million and spent more than $930,000, while Hartman spent about $8,000.

The race was even closer leading up to the election when expected incumbent Johnson dropped out of the race soon after the Republican primaries in April, saying he no longer wished to make the personal sacrifices that came along with the office.

In Champaign County, Gill was favored with 57 percent of voters in favor of Gill versus 37 percent for Davis and 7 percent for Hartman. These numbers were much higher for Gill than in 2010, when Gill also lagged in the county to Urbana-native Johnson with 44 percent of the vote versus Johnson’s 56.

In his victory speech, Davis thanked his family for their support.

“I love you all very much,” he said. “You’re the reason I ran for this office, you’re the reason I’m going to Washington, D.C. to make some of the tough decisions that need to be made.”