Colorado Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper declared victory Wednesday morning in a razor-thin re-election battle against Republican Bob Beauprez.
The Associated Press has called the race for the incumbent. But Beauprez has refused to concede, with his campaign saying about 120,000 votes remained uncounted.
With more than 94 percent of the votes counted, Hickenlooper led Beauprez percent 48.4 percent to 47 percent out of almost 1.8 million votes cast.
Many political observers wrote off Beauprez after his disastrous 2006 gubernatorial bid in which he lost by 17 points. And only six months ago few expected the race to be close, when the incumbent enjoyed double-digit leads.
Hickenlooper oversaw recovery efforts during some of the state’s worst natural disasters, with historic wildfires and flooding in 2013 alone. He also has overseen an improving state economy that now has an unemployment rate of 4.7 percent, compared with 9.1 percent when he took office.
But Beauprez started to gain momentum in June after beating three Republican primary candidates.
Hickenlooper was blamed for making the race close with some controversial decisions, mainly his indefinite stay of Nathan Dunlap’s execution. Dunlap was convicted of killing four people in 1993.
But Beauprez had his own campaign controversies, including saying during a debate that intrauterine devices, or IUDs — a common form of birth control — cause abortions. He also said he wouldn’t interfere with women’s reproductive rights if elected, even though he opposes abortion.
Wire reports from the Associated Press were used in this story.
