UPDATE, Nov. 9., 11:53 a.m. — Yesli Vega conceded the election to Abigail Spanberger Wednesday morning.

Vega tweeted a statement at 11:52 a.m. that said, in part:

From the bottom of my heart, thank you to everyone who committed their time, treasure, and prayers to our campaign. We gave it our all, but came up a little short last night.

I want to congratulate the Congresswoman on a hard fought win. As Supervisor, I look forward to working with Abigail in the future.

FREDERICKSBURG, Va. (DC News Now) – Democrat U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger defeated her Republican challenger, Yesli Vega, to hold on to her seat and continue serving Virginia’s 7th Congressional District.

Although it was close to 10:45 p.m. before the Associated Press called the race for Spanberger, she took to the stage roughly 20 to 25 minutes earlier to declare victory.

Spanberger, who first was elected to the U.S. House in 2018, served as a CIA officer before she entered politics.

As a candidate, Spanberger touted her Congressional voting record and stated she had clear policy visions that distinguished her from Vega.

Several polls indicated Virginia’s 7th Congressional race was among the most contested ones in the country. Vega trailed Spanberger by several percentage points prior to fall, before the race was considered a toss-up, according to FiveThirtyEight, and the Cook Political Report.

Spanberger outraised Vega by $5.4 million, according to federal campaign finance data.

Virginia’s 7th Congressional District was redrawn following the 2020 U.S. Census, which excluded metro Richmond voters and gained constituents in Northern Virginia suburbs.