Reelection hopes for Sen. Mark Begich (D-Alaska) sagged early Wednesday morning as he trailed his Republican rival by about 9,000 votes.
With 97 percent of precincts reporting, Begich's Republican challenger, Dan Sullivan, had received 49 percent of the vote, according to The Associated Press. Begich had received 45 percent of the votes.
The AP has not projected a winner.
( Senate results by state)
Begich faced off against Sullivan, the state's former attorney general and director of natural resources. A vulnerable Democrat in a red state, Begich faced a tough reelection slog, in a midterm environment that strongly favored the GOP.
Campaign spending from outside the state flooded into the state, led by the liberal super PAC Put Alaska First, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
Republican Sen. John McCain carried Alaska by almost 22 percentage points in 2008. Nonetheless, the same year Begich, a former mayor of Anchorage, unseated GOP Sen. Ted Stevens, who had just been convicted in an ethics case that was later thrown out. Obama lost by a narrower but still large margin, 14 points, to Mitt Romney in 2012.
( WATCH: Election Day 2014 videos)
The Begich-Sullivan campaign included some hostile attack ads, including one from the Begich team that was eventually retracted in September amid a public outcry. The ad attempted to portray Sullivan as soft on crime during his tenure as the state's attorney general. Republicans criticized the retracted Begich ad as tantamount to the famous Willie Horton ad of 1988, and believed Begich's decision to air the ad and then pull it helped the GOP's chances.
That episode was seen as a rare lapse for Begich, who was credited with running a top-notch campaign. Some of his other TV ads were produced by Mark Putnam, a former team Obama media consultant who has made some of this year's most memorable ads for Democrats nationally.
Heading into Election Day, Begich appeared to be in a stronger position than any of the other red-state Democrats running for reelection, though polling is notoriously difficult in The Last Frontier.
( PHOTOS: Election Day 2014)
In the Alaska governor's race, independent Bill Walker, a one-time Republican on a fusion ticket with the former Democratic nominee, had a 1-point lead over GOP Gov. Sean Parnell, 48 percent to 47 percent.
Entities 0 Name: Begich Count: 10 1 Name: Obama Count: 2 2 Name: Alaska Count: 2 3 Name: GOP Count: 2 4 Name: Sullivan Count: 2 5 Name: Willie Horton Count: 1 6 Name: Sean Parnell Count: 1 7 Name: Begich-Sullivan Count: 1 8 Name: Sen. Ted Stevens Count: 1 9 Name: Dan Sullivan Count: 1 10 Name: Sen. John McCain Count: 1 11 Name: Center for Responsive Politics Count: 1 12 Name: Republican Count: 1 13 Name: PAC Put Alaska First Count: 1 14 Name: Bill Walker Count: 1 15 Name: Anchorage Count: 1 16 Name: The Associated Press Count: 1 17 Name: AP Count: 1 18 Name: Mark Putnam Count: 1 19 Name: Democratic Count: 1 20 Name: Mitt Romney Count: 1 21 Name: Senate Count: 1 22 Name: Sen. Mark Begich Count: 1 Related 0 Url: http://ift.tt/1x89eJz Title: Midterm election: 10 states to watch carefully Description: Tuesday's election brings to an end a multibillion-dollar barrage of promises, threats, hysteria and retribution known collectively as the 2014 midterms. Traditionally, such elections are the out-party's opportunity for payback against the party in power, and rarely has that been as true as it is this year, when President Obama's unpopularity has made Republicans optimistic about winning control of the Senate and extending their domain in the House.
