The New Hampshire Senate race is likely heading to a recount even as Democratic Gov. Maggie Hassan declared victory with a several-hundred-vote lead on Wednesday morning.
Republican incumbent Sen. Kelly Ayotte declined to concede the race to Sen. Kelly Ayotte, saying that she is still waiting for every vote to be counted. She trails by about 700 votes of the 700,000 cast.
"This has been a closely contested race from the beginning and we look forward to results being announced by the Secretary of State, and ensuring that every vote is counted in this race that has received an historic level of interest," the Ayotte campaign said in a release.
The release came after Hassan delivered a victory speech, in which she pledged to "work with President-elect Trump when it is in the best interest of New Hampshire and the country, and to stand up to him when it isn’t." She insisted that her lead was solid enough to win.
"It is clear that we have won, and I am proud to stand here as the next United States Senator from New Hampshire," she said in prepared remarks.
New Hampshire trailed only Pennsylvania in attack ads against Republicans. Democrats and liberal activists spent more than $53 million on ads to aid Hassan's challenge, including $48 million in attack ads, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The state was swamped with more than $90 million in outside spending to reach its 919,126 registered voters—about $100 per potential voter—according to the New Hampshire Secretary of State's office.
The state experienced record-high turnout and remained a toss-up even after Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in the presidential race. The candidates frequently traded leads in the closing months of the race, which was never more than 4 points apart between September and November, according to a Real Clear Politics polling average. Ayotte had to overcome a 4.3 percent deficit entering the fall after Hassan and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton enjoyed surging support following the Democratic National Convention.
Ayotte campaigned on her foreign policy experience as a member of the Homeland Security and Armed Services committees. She questioning Hassan's ability to handle national security issues because the governor had never served outside of New Hampshire state politics. Hassan fumbled several key areas of foreign policy, flip-flopping on her support for the Iran deal, her decision to block resettlement of Syrian refugees, and the closure of Guantanamo Bay's detention facility.
Hassan was also dogged over the closing months of the campaign with accusations of a pay-to-play scandal involving her campaign donors and a $300 million Obamacare contract, as well as stonewalling a public records request into her administration's contract with a mental health hospital. She was also engulfed in scandal after the Boston Globe revealed that her educator husband hushed up a sexual misconduct scandal involving a teacher and student. Hassan, who claimed that she never knew about the misconduct, later named the teacher to a campaign leadership committee.
Ayotte campaigned as a moderate, touting her bipartisan record, and rescinded her Trump endorsement following the leak of his hot mic comments to Access Hollywood. Surveys found that Ayotte led the nation in ticket splitting in which voters chose Clinton for president, but opted for the Republican Senate nominee.
The state is expected to certify its official results today.