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U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson walks into her campaign headquarters for a news conference to announce her victory in the 1st Congressional District race. Accompanying her Thursday night were her husband, Jay Hone (left), and their children, Caitlin and Josh.

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Heather Wilson says she's won.

Patricia Madrid says she refuses to lose.

New Mexico's 1st Congressional District campaign - contentious, close, and down to its final moments - is ending the way it began: Neither candidate is giving an inch, even as the vote count in one of the nation's toughest races moves to its final moments.

For her part, Wilson, the Republican incumbent, declared victory late Thursday in her bid for a fifth full term in Congress. But Madrid would not concede, saying too many votes remain to be counted.

"There's never going to be a concession speech," Madrid's campaign spokeswoman Heather Brewer said Thursday night.

This morning, she clarified that remark, saying Madrid would concede if she concludes she's lost. That determination is at least days away, Brewer said.

"We don't believe there's ever going to be a need" for a concession, Brewer said.

At 9:50 p.m. Thursday, more than 48 hours after the vote count began, two Wilson supporters set out champagne and orange juice at campaign headquarters.

At 10 p.m. sharp, Wilson strode to the podium and called the election, even as votes were still being counted.

"My children expected to be celebrating this victory with orange juice Wednesday morning," Wilson said, surrounded by her husband, son and daughter, who wore matching Team Wilson 2006 shirts embroidered with their names.

"It's taken a while, but I'm glad they are here with me to celebrate. Josh and Cait," she told her children, "we won."

Across town, Madrid's campaign wasn't giving any speeches. Madrid, the Democratic challenger who'd led in polls only a few days before Election Day, was at home after a day at the Attorney General's Office that she'll run until the end of the year.

While Wilson's people say they had an insurmountable lead of 1,600 votes as of Thursday night, Madrid's campaign says there are still about 4,000 uncounted ballots. They will wait until all the votes are counted.

"We're going to let all the people speak," Brewer said. Madrid's campaign is waiting for provisional and "in lieu of" ballots to be counted, and Brewer predicted those will put the wind back in the sails of Madrid's campaign.

As of this morning Wilson was leading 104,575 to 102,968, according to unofficial numbers by the Associated Press.

Wilson's spokesman said Madrid would need to win 75 percent of the provisionals to make up the vote margin.

So how did Wilson apparently manage to survive her closest race since 1998 and secure a fifth term amid of storm of defeat for the GOP across the nation?

"There were a lot of things, a long-term commitment to community service and casework," she said in an interview after her speech. "We've helped thousands of people and been accessible to people. I think in the end it was a choice that people made, and we were able to show that there was a difference between Mrs. Madrid and I. That choice was about taxes, and national security and character."

Christine Sierra, a political science professor at the University of New Mexico, said Wilson had several things going for her.

"I would say first and foremost, she was able to build a layer of insulation around herself by convincing voters that she was set apart from President Bush," she said.

"She also was the incumbent with more money to spend at the end."

And spend she did. Wilson spent $3.7 million compared with Madrid's $2.5 million, according to the candidates' most recent campaign reports.

One major cost was for ads, most of them negative, that both sides started airing early in the campaign.

"To take two moments from a televised debate and use them in a political ad, that was pretty unprecedented," Sierra said.

Wilson ran with a segment of the debate where Madrid stumbled after being asked a question about taxes.

Madrid, in turn, criticized Wilson for not directly answering when she was asked to evaluate Bush's presidency.

Wilson, who told reporters repeatedly that history should be the judge of presidents, hinted at that theme in her speech.

"As a public official, I have always been muted in my public criticism of any administration when there are American soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines in the field.

"But I want New Mexicans to know that I will continue to give my counsel directly and frankly to this president and any president, and I always have," she said. "I have always believed it is more appropriate, more credible and, in most instances, more effective than public criticism, particularly when that criticism could affect the morale of our troops and the success of their mission."

While Wilson says she will return to Congress next week, many of her colleagues won't be. Democrats seized control of the House and Senate in Tuesday's election, as voters tossed out a slew of Republican incumbents.

Wilson said she was saddened to watch the election results come in.

"I watched the returns on Tuesday night and realized that so many of my colleagues would not be returning to the Congress because of this national mood. And yet so many Democrats and Independents still had faith in me, and that was really humbling and I've taken that to heart."

Wilson said she would miss Rep. Nancy Johnson of Connecticut the most.

Johnson, whom Wilson described as an expert in health care policy, apparently will still be in the nation's capitol, though.

"I talked to her today, and she said I probably won't be able to avoid her. She has a couple of bikes in Washington so we'll go biking around the mall to go get exercise. We'll still see each other."