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Republican Heather Wilson looks safe for a fifth term in Congress. Yet her Democratic challenger refused to concede.

Wilson retained her seat from New Mexico's 1st Congressional District late Friday, narrowly winning a fifth term over Democrat Patricia Madrid and overcoming election-season sentiment that battered GOP incumbents nationwide.

"The people of New Mexico have asked me to continue to represent them in the Congress. I am humbled by that trust, and I will work every day to continue to earn it," Wilson said in a statement released after Bernalillo County issued its unofficial results.

Bernalillo County Clerk Mary Herrera said the county's canvassing board is expected to reconvene Monday to certify the results.

"It could change but it doesn't seem possible at this point," Herrera said.

The overall tally showed 105,916 votes for Wilson and 105,037 for Madrid. That gave Wilson a winning margin of 879 votes -- with roughly 211,000 ballots cast in the race.

Herrera said results from Bernalillo County included all but about 500 provisional votes that were disqualified. Voters who cast those ballots will be notified by certified mail and can protest their disqualification at hearings Nov. 22 and 27.

Madrid spokeswoman Heather Brewer said Democrats would wait for all possible votes to be tallied before deciding whether to seek a recount.

"We can't make a decision about what to do next. Other people can declare victory but we choose to wait and let democracy play its course," Brewer said.

The end to the drawn-out ballot-counting in the state's largest county came 10 days after the Nov. 7 election.

Wilson's win followed a fierce season of negative campaigning by both sides. Polls showed Wilson trailing Madrid, the state's attorney general, just weeks before Election Day.

The campaign featured a seemingly endless string of attack advertisements leading up to election day. The candidates and their allies combined to spend more than $11.5 million, including $3.5 million by the national parties in the closing weeks.

"Ms. Madrid stood up for what she believed in," Wilson said. "We believe in different things, but those who supported her worked hard and I commend them for their effort."

The Air Force veteran survived close contests before in her Democratic-leaning district. This time, she faced arguably her toughest opponent and had to overcome public distaste for President Bush, the war in Iraq and GOP scandals in Congress.

Brian Sanderoff, an Albuquerque pollster, said the race was close because voters were upset with Republicans in Washington and the Iraq war. But Madrid never energized voters, he said, and was hurt by a poor debate performance late in the campaign.

"This time the Democrats had a candidate with a great resume on paper, but she was not a good communicator and ultimately the weak communication skills cost her the race," Sanderoff said.

Madrid held a 1,230-vote advantage in Bernalillo County alone -- 95,311 votes to Wilson's 94,081 votes. But the 1st Congressional District includes precincts in four other counties -- and Wilson held a 2,109-vote lead in those areas.