Senate candidate Dr. Al Gross, independent from Alaska Image by Al Gross/YouTube

(JTA) — Al Gross, the Jewish doctor whose challenge to Alaska’s Republican senator attracted deep support from across the United States, is lagging badly in early vote counts.

But with nearly half of ballots yet to be tallied, Gross is declining to concede, saying that he believes his campaign will ultimately prevail.

“The dynamics of the Alaska Senate race at this hour remain in a state of flux,” Gross tweeted late Thursday. “With approximately 44.6 percent of the ballots not yet counted, we believe we will win once every vote has been counted in the state.”

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The vast majority of ballots that have yet to be counted were mailed in, Gross said. Across the country, most mail-in ballots have been for Democrats, who pushed mail-in balloting as a way to ensure voters’ safety during the pandemic.

Gross was polling neck and neck against Sen. Dan Sullivan through the campaign’s final months, as Sullivan faced a scandal and Gross benefitted from millions of dollars in donations from Americans who sought to flip the Senate from Republican to Democratic control. The other Jewish candidate in striking distance of flipping a Senate seat, Jon Ossoff in Georgia, is likely headed to a January runoff election after neither he nor his opponent drew a majority of votes.

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