Washington ( CNN ) -- Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska Wednesday declared victory over fellow Republican Joe Miller in the nation 's last Senate race , saying the result of her write-in candidacy was a `` miracle . '' `` Against all odds , we as Alaskans together made history , '' Murkowski told cheering supporters in Anchorage . If she prevails in a potential challenge , Murkowski would become the second person to ever win a write-in bid for the U.S. Senate . Murkowski 's statement was the climax in the state 's bitter and prolonged Senate battle . It was essentially a triumphant declaration of beating back a three-pronged attack : from Miller , from the Tea Party Express , and from Sarah Palin . `` We 've said all along , we 'll wait for the votes to be counted , '' Murkowski Campaign Manager Kevin Sweeney told CNN . `` By any standard , this was a clear victory . This was a whuppin ' , '' Sweeney added . Currently , Alaska 's Division of Elections is counting 100,868 votes for Murkowski versus 90,448 for Miller . By that count , Murkowski leads by 10,420 . However , 8,153 of Murkowski 's votes have been contested by the Miller campaign . If , as Miller 's side would like , all of those contested votes are thrown out -- an almost impossible scenario to many election and legal observers -- Murkowski would still win the race with the uncontested votes alone . `` You can see that the numbers just wo n't add up , '' Sweeney told CNN , referring to Miller 's hopes of pulling out a win despite the rising tide against him . The Associated Press has called the race for Murkowski . If the outcome stands in the face of legal challenges , despite a count of any outstanding ballots or a potential recount from Miller , it would be only the second time a person won a write-in campaign for the Senate . Strom Thurmond of South Carolina won a write-in campaign in 1954 . At this point , Miller is conceding nothing . In an interview with Neil Cavuto on Fox News , Miller said he is `` less cautiously optimistic '' given the vote tallies . But Miller was emphatic about ensuring the integrity of the vote-counting process , asserting that the difference was `` less than 1 percent . '' He said he may request a recount , that he wants to ensure that some military ballots were mailed out , and that the difference between his votes and Murkowski 's may shift if a `` consistent standard '' for evaluating the write-in ballots is applied . Evaluating the write-in ballots has been controversial . As Alaska 's Division of Elections tallied them , some ballots that contained misspellings or variations of `` Lisa Murkowski '' have been credited as votes for her . That issue of evaluating a `` voter 's intent '' has infuriated the Miller campaign , prompting it to launch a federal lawsuit in hopes of annulling the count of misspelled or incongruous ballots . Miller 's campaign blasted the Division of Elections ' standards as `` extraordinarily ambiguous . '' A Miller loss would be a huge slap to Sarah Palin and the Tea Party Express . Palin endorsed Miller over Murkowski for the state 's GOP Senate primary , and the national Tea Party group followed suit . Murkowski lost the primary in August -- and conceded the race . Shortly after , Murkowski launched a write-in bid to retain her seat . Murkowski was first appointed to her post by her father , then-Gov . Frank Murkowski , in 2002 . Palin defeated him in the 2006 GOP gubernatorial primary . CNN 's Kristi Kreck contributed to this report .
Murkowski thanks Alaskans for helping make history . She ran as write-in candidate after losing primary to Joe Miller . Miller is backed by Tea Party Express .