RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Conservative candidate Bob Good has won a Virginia congressional race, keeping a longtime GOP seat in Republican hands. Good defeated Democratic opponent and political newcomer Dr. Cameron Webb. His victory came several months after GOP leaders pushed the Republican incumbent aside. U.S. Rep. Denver Riggleman angered social conservatives by officiating a gay marriage. No Democrat has won a race in the sprawling district since 2008, but the Democratic Party was optimistic after Riggleman’s downfall. The ultraconservative Good made his Christian faith a centerpiece of the campaign. Webb is a 37-year-old doctor and lawyer who worked in White House fellowship programs during both President Barack Obama’s and President Donald Trump’s administrations.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Democrat Cameron Webb conceded to Republican Bob Good early Wednesday in the competitive race for Virginia’s 5th Congressional District, which Democrats had hoped to turn blue.

The Associated Press has not yet declared a winner in the race.

“While this is not the outcome we hoped for, it has truly been an honor to run to represent this district in Congress,” Webb, a doctor with a law degree, said in a statement.

The statement said the margin between Webb and Good was sufficiently large that the remaining outstanding ballots were unable to make up the difference.

Good, a former athletics official at evangelical Liberty University, had claimed victory in the race about an hour earlier. He said in a statement that Webb called him to concede.

“This will be a victory for true conservative principles. This will be a victory for the nation’s founding Judeo-Christian principles. And this will be a victory for religious liberty and the unashamed importance of faith and family,” Good, who made his faith a centerpiece of his campaign, said in a speech to supporters.

While Democrats fell short in that House race, they had reason to cheer statewide results. Democrat Joe Biden defeated Republican President Donald Trump in the race for president and U.S. Sen. Mark Warner was reelected to a third term.

Voters were still waiting early Wednesday to see who won two other competitive U.S. House races in a test of whether Virginia’s “blue wave” has staying power. Democrats in those races were trying to hold on to the competitive seats they flipped in 2018.

Rep. Abigail Spanberger was working to fend off Republican Nick Freitas in the Richmond area’s 7th Congressional District, while Rep. Elaine Luria was in a rematch with Republican former Rep. Scott Taylor for a Hampton Roads-area seat in the 2nd Congressional District.

Spanberger and Luria are part of a group of moderate Democrats who came to Congress with deep military and intelligence experience. Their credentials were instrumental in pushing the House to impeach Trump over allegations that he pressured Ukraine to investigate Biden.

The 5th Congressional District, a sprawling, mostly conservative area in the western part of the state, was closely watched as a potential bellwether. Good ousted incumbent Rep. Denver Riggleman in a contentious GOP primary fight after Riggleman officiated a gay marriage.

No Democrat has won a race in the district since 2008, but the Democratic Party was optimistic after Riggleman’s downfall. The 37-year-old Webb is director of health policy and equity at the University of Virginia. He formerly worked in a White House fellowship program in both the Obama and Trump administrations.

Good is a self-described “biblical conservative” who was endorsed by Trump.

All three incumbent GOP House members — Reps. Rob Wittman, Ben Cline, and Morgan Griffith — held on to their seats, as did Democratic Reps. Don Beyer, Jennifer Wexton, Gerry Connolly and Bobby Scott. It was too early to call the race for Democratic incumbent Don McEachin.

Trump made noise about carrying Virginia, doing a quick campaign rally at the Newport News airport in September that drew thousands of supporters. Overall, though, the state was not a focus of either campaign. While Virginia was considered a swing state as recently as 2012, it has trended sharply toward Democrats over the past decade. Republicans have not won statewide in Virginia since 2009.

David Hendrix, 54, voted at Community of Grace Church in Chesterfield County, where there was no line. The furniture store owner praised Trump and said he deserved a second term.

“He’s running the country like a business instead of just politics and they can’t buy him off,” Hendrix said.

Dorothy and Richard Cannon, who voted early in Norfolk, said they chose Biden for president, in part because of their concerns about the cost of health insurance. They said they believe Biden will work to make it more affordable.

“It’s like half my check for me and him to have insurance,” said Dorothy Cannon, 49, who works in sales. “It’s like I’m working to have insurance.”

Voters also approved a referendum that puts next year’s redistricting in Virginia in the hands of a bipartisan commission. The amendment to the state constitution caps a yearslong effort by reformers looking to end partisan gerrymandering. A bipartisan commission of citizens and legislators equally divided between Democrats and Republicans will now redraw the state’s congressional and General Assembly districts to conform with the 2020 Census.

Voting proceeded smoothly Tuesday across Virginia. New voting laws and other changes made in response to the coronavirus pandemic made it easier to vote early, and more than 2.75 million voters cast ballots before Election Day. That’s more than two-thirds of the total overall voter turnout from four years ago in Virginia.

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