Republicans held on to their seat in Congress at the end of a contentious and expensive race in Illinois’ 13th District after GOP candidate Rodney Davis won this November.

“I am humbled to have the honor to serve as Congressman for the 13th District and am ready to get to work,” Davis said in a press release days after his victory.

Four-time congressional candidate David Gill did not concede the race until three days later, saying at the time that uncounted votes could turn the tide of the election.

“The closeness of this race (less than 1/2 percentage point) demanded that we diligently check the numbers,” Gill said in a press release. “The incredibly close outcome of this congressional election, along with the re-election of President Obama and a Democratic Senate, have proven that knee-jerk conservative policies will not succeed in this country nor be accepted by most of the people in this district.”

At 46 percent of the vote, this was 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 44 percent of the vote.

Independent candidate John Hartman from Edwardsville, Ill. walked away with 7 percent of the vote this year.

The competitiveness of this district was largely 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 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. The former U.S. Representative will teach a class in political science at Illinois State University and formally retire on Jan. 3 when Davis is sworn into office.

“The single proudest thing I can look back on is the legacy of the fact that there is a real face associated with real public service,” he said, in reference to his relationship with his constituency.