Joe Miller LAW ’95 shocked the nation by upsetting incumbent Sen. Lisa Murkowski in Alaska’s Republican primary, but he won’t be heading to the Senate floor, after all.

With just 700 ballots left to count in the Last Frontier, Murkowski, who decided in September to mount a write-in bid against Miller and Democrat Scott McAdams, leads Miller by 10,000 votes. Though Miller’s campaign has challenged just over 8,000 of those ballots for misspellings and extra words, the Associated Press and Washington Post have both called the election for Murkowski. Miller has yet to officially concede; he has said he will only continue fighting if the math works in his favor.

With her victory, Murkowski becomes the first write-in candidate elected to the U.S. Senate since 1954, when Strom Thurmond won in South Carolina. She will return to Alaska today to make an “exciting announcement” to her supporters, the Post reported.