Republican David Yancey won the tie-breaker for Virginia's 94th House of Delegates district when state officials picked his name out of a bowl.
The loser, Democratic candidate Shelly Simonds, was sitting in the front row with her daughter.
The decisive one-vote victory allows the Republicans to maintain control of the Virginia House of Delegates after Democrats made major pick-ups in November's elections, cutting the GOP's 66-34 advantage to 50-49. If Yancey's victory stands, it will be 51-49.
After a recount of their race, Yancey and Simonds were tallied to have 11,608 votes each, creating a statistically unlikely deadlock.
When that happened, Virginia state law required the winner be determined "by lot," a random process like picking a name out of a hat or flipping a coin.
Simonds asked Yancey on Wednesday to agree to the final results of the drawing, but he declined, according to HuffPost.
It isn't clear whether she will challenge the results. According to state law, the candidate who loses the drawing can request a recount.