There has been no official decision yet on Wisconsin's U.S. Senate race, but incumbent Tammy Baldwin declared victory early Wednesday morning.

With 99% of the votes counted, the Madison Democrat had regained a narrow lead over Republican challenger Eric Hovde, 49.3% to 48.6%, after appearing to trail the Madison businessman for much of Tuesday evening.

“It is clear that the voters have spoken and our campaign has won,” Baldwin said in a statement around 4:30 a.m. “The people of Wisconsin elected someone who will always put Wisconsin first, someone who will show up, listen and work with everyone to get the job done. And they rejected the billionaires and special interests who come to our state, spread hatred and division, and want to buy their way to power.”

Hovde had a slight lead after the polls closed Tuesday night, but tens of thousands of votes, many from Democratic-rich Milwaukee, still had to be counted. Hovde also slightly outperformed the Republican front-runner, former President Donald Trump, in key conservative districts around Milwaukee.

Official results likely wouldn't be announced until later on Wednesday. While Milwaukee's vote counting typically drags on late into the night to tally all the ballots, the process was delayed even further this year after problems with unlocked ballot-counting machines led county party leaders on both sides to agree to restart the counting process.

That meant about 30,000 votes were sent back through the machines, delaying the final count for hours, officials said.

UW-Madison Elections Research Center director Barry Burden told the Wisconsin State Journal that the Senate race largely mirrors the presidential race, but added that this is likely the most difficult race Baldwin has ever run.

“She has never lost a race, but this is probably her least successful race of all,” he said.

That's a change for Baldwin, who has typically overtaken Democrats at the top of the ticket, but it “doesn't look like that's going to happen this time.”

If her leadership continues, this would be Baldwin's third term in the Senate, where she will serve alongside the state's other U.S. senator, Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Oshkosh. Republicans have not held both seats in the Wisconsin Senate since Joe McCarthy and Alexander Wiley served together from 1947 to 1957. Since then, Democrats have held both seats at the same time a few times.

The race was marked by extensive fundraising and advertising spending on both sides, with Baldwin raising over $38 million compared to $28 million for Hovde, of which he borrowed $20 million for his campaign.

Baldwin has tried to portray Hovde as an out-of-state billionaire by highlighting his Utah-based bank Sunwest and his influence in California in ads. She has also touted various legislation she has worked on, such as the CHIPS Act, which includes a Buy American provision that she has specifically advocated for.

Hovde launched ads defending his ties to Madison and sought to portray Baldwin as a puppet of the Democratic Party rather than someone who would vote for its voters. He has also highlighted his experience in the business world, arguing that this makes him better suited to dealing with inflation and other economic problems.

Baldwin has also taken aim at Hovde's abortion stance, arguing she will work to restore federal protections for abortion access.

Hovde said he supports the U.S. Supreme Court's decision overturning Roe v. Wade, but he would not support a national abortion ban. When he last ran for Senate in 2012, he said he was “totally opposed” to abortion.

Baldwin also launched an ad campaign denouncing Hovde for appearing to call farmers “lazy,” although the Wisconsin State Journal noted that the clip in which Baldwin's ads aired lacked context.

Likewise, Hovde has run ads claiming that Baldwin is “in bed with Wall Street,” a reference to Baldwin's friend Maria Brisbane, a private investment advisor on Wall Street. The ad suggested that Baldwin and Brisbane might share insider secrets.

The State Journal noted that Brisbane employer Morgan Stanley prohibits employees from sharing insider secrets, and Baldwin's campaign said the senator “has never shared insider information and never will.”