Assemblywoman Sharron Angle stands at a computer during her election watch party Tuesday in Reno. Unofficial returns show Angle lost her bid to be the Republican candidate in Congressional District 2 by 428 votes, but she isn't ready to concede. Photos by The Associated Press. Secretary of State Dean Heller waits for election results to come in Tuesday in Carson City.

CARSON CITY -- Assemblywoman Sharron Angle, R-Reno, won't concede she lost the Republican primary for the 2nd Congressional District seat, though unofficial returns Wednesday show she drew 428 votes fewer than Secretary of State Dean Heller.

Angle told supporters about 1 a.m. Wednesday that she isn't conceding anything until the election results are certified. County election departments won't finish canvassing votes and certifying returns until Tuesday.

"It would take a miracle," Angle said. "But it is such a slim margin, I am not quite ready to say it is done."

The returns found Heller with 35.1 percent of the votes, Angle with 34.5 percent and former Assemblywoman Dawn Gibbons at 24.6 percent. Gibbons is the spouse of Jim Gibbons, the Reno Republican who has served as the district's representative for 10 years and on Tuesday won the Republican gubernatorial primary.

If the official count shows Heller winning the election, then Angle pledged to support him in the general election against Democrat Jill Derby and urged her supporters to do the same.

"I want to congratulate Dean Heller on a good race, a competitive race, a challenging race," Angle said. "It has been fun all the way. We knew going in it would be a long shot. I am proud of what we did. We ran a clean campaign and we compared records."

Jerry Stacy, a longtime aide to Angle, said the assemblywoman may ask for a recount next week.

"This race is way too close to throw in the towel," he said. "All options are open. My phone is ringing off the hook. Our supporters expect us to do a recount."

Stacy said Angle's campaign staff is concerned because a number of voting precincts in Washoe County, where Angle ran strongest, were not open as required at 7 a.m. Tuesday. He said they also wonder why so many late votes went for Heller when, just prior to the final returns being posted, Angle was either closing the margin or leading.

Heller said Wednesday he received calls from both Angle and Gibbons congratulating him and pledging their support.

"Sharron was very gracious," he said. "She even apologized for calling me a Democrat on a radio show."

Heller added he doubts a recount would take much time or cost much money since most votes were cast on touch-screen electronic machines. Paper abstentee ballots would have to be counted by hand.

Although his office oversees elections, the actual canvass, certification and the recount would be done by county election departments.

Heller said he doubted the race would have been close except for the financial support given Angle by the Club for Growth, a national organization of 36,000 members that pools its resources to elect candidates pledged to lower taxes and less government regulation.

He estimated the organization spent $1 million on ads in the final two weeks that attacked him as a liberal. Until that point, Heller said polls showed him enjoying a comfortable 2 to 1 lead over Angle.

To counter that offensive, Heller said he turned to volunteers, including his children and their friends, who engaged in an extensive telephone campaign to urge people to vote for him. Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., also made calls to voters on his behalf last weekend, according to the secretary of state.

Heller said he hopes his battle with Derby does not degenerate into another nasty campaign. But he added Democrats, as well as Republicans, can form Club for Growth organizations and set out to destroy their opponents.

"I think Sharron wanted to run a clean campaign until the Club for Growth intervened. I don't like negative campaigning, but you have to respond to negative ads and ads that aren't truthful."

If elected, Heller said he would back a federal law to prevent federal candidates from acquiring most of their support from people and organizations outside of their districts. He noted that nearly 90 percent of Angle's individual donors did not live in Nevada, while 90 percent of his were Nevadans.