John Hickenlooper declares victory in Colo. gov race, Beauprez won't concede

DENVER, Nov. 5 (UPI) -- Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper declared victory in his reelection bid Wednesday morning, even as votes continued to come in.

With 93 percent of votes counted, the Democratic incumbent led Republican challenger Bob Beauprez 48.45 percent to 46.99 percent, with a margin of 27,498 votes.

Hickenlooper trailed Beauprez most of the night Tuesday, but surpassed him and began to open up a narrow lead as liberal-leaning counties came in.

"One with no sleep can still experience great joy," Hickenloooper said in a press conference at the state Capitol Wednesday morning. "Colorado has, and will continue to grow. So let's get on with it."

Beauprez refused to concede, citing roughly 120,000 votes that remain uncounted.

"Bob wants to be sure every Coloradan has their voice heard, so we are going to continue to monitor results this morning as votes are still being counted," spokesman Allen Fuller said.

Most of the uncounted votes are in Boulder and Denver counties, where Hickenlooper is expected to do well, although some remained to be tallied in the swing areas of Jefferson County and Adams County.

Surprisingly, some 5 percent of the electorate voted for Hickenlooper, but against Democratic incumbent Sen. Mark Udall, who lost his race to Republican Rep. Cory Gardner.