One month after declaring he had no path to victory and dropping out of the race, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley declared victory over state Rep. Francesca Hong for the Dem gubernatorial nomination.

Crowley’s push to the nomination was fueled by a late surge of cash and the endorsement of Gov. Tony Evers after getting back into the race July 18. He’ll now take on U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, the Donald Trump-endorsed GOP congressman from Minocqua who faced token opposition for the Republican nomination.

With 98% of precincts reporting, Crowley was at 39.8%, compared to 39.4% for Hong, a difference of about 3,200 votes.

Crowley’s campaign released a statement early this morning declaring victory, and a spokesperson for the county executive said Hong had called to concede. Hong’s campaign confirmed the call.

“The choice in November has always been clear,” said Crowley campaign manager Garren Randolph. “We can move Wisconsin forward with leadership focused on solving problems, or we can bring the division and extremism of Tom Tiffany and Donald Trump to Wisconsin.”

Earlier in the evening, Hong stopped short of a concession speech at her rally in Madison. She addressed supporters with unofficial returns showing Crowley in the lead and before the absentee ballot numbers from the city of Milwaukee were added into the totals.

Hong said her campaign is something that “will change politics forever” and her candidacy has been “an honor of a lifetime” in a message to her Madison watch party attendees.

“We have built a beautiful, multi-generational, multi-partisan, multiracial working-class movement, and it is a movement that meets the moment. This is unprecedented here, and this is how we’re going to win,” Hong said.

Hong also issued a call for unity, regardless of the outcome of the primary, to beat Tiffany.

Some progressives have bristled at Evers’ involvement in the race, accusing the establishment of seeking to put its thumb on the scale in the primary.

“We will win together, united, because everyone who’s running in this race, they know that we can make better possible, and we must make better possible. And together, with each other, and for each other, we will make better possible,” Hong said.

Milwaukee’s central count to tabulate absentee ballots has been plagued by errors in past elections that delayed statewide results, and it happened again in the primary. There were issues transferring results from tabulators to flash drives that could then be uploaded to the Milwaukee County Clerk’s website.

Crowley had a 1,198-vote lead in Milwaukee County before the absentee ballots were added in. Once they were reported, his edge in the county jumped to 2,392 votes.

Other communities had issues that delayed their results as well. Winnebago County, for example, had issues with a server that required local clerks to come back in to load up the results again.

Meanwhile, Green County reported its results might not be available until later today after server issues. County staff was having problems accessing encrypted files that 16 municipal clerks had loaded up.

Tiffany addressed his supporters not long after polls closed and he was quickly projected to win the GOP nomination after facing token opposition from Andy Manske, a medical services technician.

At his election night party in Hartland, Tiffany said Wisconsin’s best days are ahead of it as he invited supporters to stand with him to fight for lower taxes, good-paying jobs and accountability from state government.

“The fight is bigger than just one party. The fight is bigger than just one candidate. The fight is about Wisconsin,” Tiffany said.

The chaotic race for the Dem nomination was marked by candidates dropping out, outside spending through GOP groups looking to boost Hong and the late effort behind Crowley to prevent the democratic socialist lawmaker from being the party’s standard bearer this fall.

The Republican Governors Association has reported nearly $3.6 million spent on independent expenditures opposing Hong. But many saw the spots as an attempt to elevate her in the Dem primary, particularly since the first ad focused on her opposition to Trump’s immigration policies and a vow to take the party back to its progressive roots.

Also, a group called Middle Class Priorities spent nearly $1.3 million on TV and mail backing Hong. While the ads carried traditional Dem talking points, the group and its backers carried all the hallmarks of another GOP attempt at meddling in a primary.

Meanwhile, two groups backing Crowley and the candidate combined to spend $4 million, according to a check of filings with the state and data from AdImpact.

In contrast, a WisPolitics check of her filings showed Hong reported just $300,598 on media-related expenses through the end of the pre-primary period July 27 with just $150,200 of that on online ads.

The race for the Dem nomination began with seven candidates and began to narrow after WEDC Secretary and CEO Missy Hughes dropped out June 22. Crowley followed two weeks later and endorsed Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez. But after she dropped out July 17 amid financial irregularities with her campaign, Crowley jumped back into the race a day later.

The field narrowed again when former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes dropped out of the race July 30.

State Sen. Kelda Roys, D-Madison, and former DOA Secretary Joel Brennan remained in the race until the end. Roys pulled 7.5% of the vote, while Brennan was at 4.7%.

Hughes, Rodriguez and Barnes also still received votes; the Elections Commission and the courts rejected calls to allow those who cast absentee ballots early to vote again.