The Republicans scored yet another victory in the midterm elections as officials sort through the too-close-to-call races, with Dan Sullivan declaring victory over Democrat Mark Begich in Alaska’s Senate race.

The win pushes the GOP to a total gain of eight Senate seats in the elections, which has been more than enough to wrest control of the Senate from Democrats, according to Fox News. A ninth seat is still up for grabs in Louisiana, which will have a runoff election next month.

Sullivan ran on a campaign tying Begich to President Barack Obama and Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid, a successful tactic for Republicans on Election Day, especially in Alaska where both are unpopular. Begich countered that Sullivan didn’t have many ideas of his own.

According to early counting of absentee ballots, Sullivan has maintained his razor-thin edge of 8,100 votes and will take the seat.

Sullivan was Alaska’s natural resources commissioner and spoke often of energy independence during his campaign. Gov. Sarah Palin, former GOP vice presidential candidate, appointed him as attorney general in 2009.

Getting to Begich wasn’t easy: Sullivan had to survive a tough three-way primary fight, whereas Begich had a much easier time against his party’s candidates.

Begich tried to cast himself as an independent thinker who wasn’t just a rubber stamp for Obama and would reach across party lines.

Begich’s biggest misstep may have been his decision to run an ad painting Sullivan as soft on crime by featuring a former Anchorage police officer standing outside a home where an older couple were brutally murdered in 2013 and saying that Sullivan should not be in office. The victim’s family, however, complained about the ad, and Begich eventually pulled it.