Berg to hold press conference at 12:45 about status of Senate race

FARGO - U.S. Rep. Rick Berg, who refused to concede the U.S. Senate race early this morning despite trailing in unofficial results by 2,814 votes, will make an announcement this afternoon about the status of the race.

Berg's spokesman sent a news release just before 11 a.m. saying the congressman will talk about the race at the monthly luncheon meeting of the Fargo-area United Republican Committee of Cass County at the Holiday Inn in Fargo at 12:45 p.m.

With all precincts reporting statewide, Democrat Heidi Heitkamp appears to have won the election by about 1 percentage point. Heitkamp leads her Republican opponent by 2,814 votes, just shy of 1 percentage point – 50.25 percent to 49.31 percent.

Berg's camp said early today that it would wait until the race is canvassed before making any announcements about the results of the election. The canvassing starts Friday and is expected to last until early next week.

The results are not tight enough to force an automatic recount under state law, but they are close enough that Berg could request a recount.

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