A week after the midterm Election Day, Alaska's U.S. Senate finally has a winner, and it's a gain for the Republican Party in Congress.

Republican candidate Dan Sullivan emerged victorious against Democratic incumbent Mark Begich, and as a result, the U.S. Senate will see an additional eight Republicans come January 2015. With 100 percent of the 441 Alaskan precincts reporting, Sullivan won the election with 48.58 percent, narrowly ahead of Begich's 45.37 percent. Libertarian candidate Mark Fish placed third with 3.67 percent while Ted Gianoutsos, who ran with no political party affiliation, received 1.92 percent of the vote.

"I am deeply humbled and honored to be chosen by my fellow Alaskans to serve them in the United States Senate," Sullivan said in a statement. "From day one we told our supporters that we would run a campaign that Alaskans could be proud of and that's what we did. But we couldn't do it alone and Julie and I are so grateful for the incredible support and encouragement we received from Alaskans in every corner of our state.

Latin Post contacted Begich's campaign office for a statement, but a reply has yet to be returned. On Begich's campaign website, however, it acknowledges, "Stories have been trickling in over the last 24 hours." The campaign website's statement by Begich acknowledged the difficulties some voters have encountered to cast their vote and thanked supporters for their contribution.

"Right now there are still tens of thousands of ballots yet to be counted. We know we can count on the Alaska Division of Elections to get the job done right, and while we're anxious to see the final tally, we respect Alaska's procedures, processes, and timetable. The vote totals probably won't be known for a while. But we ran this campaign for all Alaskans, and we're going to make sure that all votes legally cast by Alaskans are counted," stated Begich. "Thank you for standing with me."

Alaskan election workers began counting approximately 20,000 absentee ballots on Tuesday. According to the Associated Press, thousands of absentee ballots have yet to be counted, but Sullivan received a "comparable edge" over Begich.

Begich has not officially conceded the race. The odds were in Begich's favor in 2008 when he defeated Republican incumbent Ted Stevens, despite the latter receiving nearly 3,000 more votes. Two weeks later, Begich would in fact receive more votes and win by less than 4,000 votes.

As Latin Post reported, more money was spent in the Alaskan election than in other competitive races in Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Georgia and Kentucky. According to OpenSecrets.org, $57 million was spent in Alaska's U.S. Senate race, but only $40 million were from outside groups not directly affiliated with the candidates.

With Sullivan's victory, the 114th Congress will have 53 Republican and 46 Democratic senators. One Senate election has yet to be determined in Louisiana between Democrat Mary Landrieu and Republican Bill Cassidy, which will have a runoff election in December.

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For the latest updates, follow Latin Post's Michael Oleaga on Twitter: @EditorMikeO or contact via email: m.oleaga@latinpost.com.

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