Dan Lipinski

While it appears seven-term 3rd Congressional District Rep. Dan Lipinski will eke out an uncomfortably close win in his Democratic primary, challenger Marie Newman isn’t ready to concede yet.

As of 11 p.m. Tuesday, Lipinski held a 50.9 percent to 49.1 percent lead over Newman, approximately 1,400 votes.

“You’ve worked too hard,” Newman told her supporters late Tuesday night. “We’re not giving in.”

Final precinct tallies were slow to come in from around the congressional district that stretches from Chicago’s Southwest Side and a small section of DuPage County, through southern Cook County and into Will County.

The primary fight between the progressive Newman and the socially conservative Lipinski featured a number of negative ads, including one in which Newman was tied to a local restaurant with numerous health violations, complete with a cloud of fruit flies buzzing about.

Marie Newman

The race is seen nationally as a referendum on social conservatism in the Democratic Party. Lipinski has drawn heated criticism for his stance against abortion and his vote against Obama Care.

In an unusual development, U.S. Reps. Jan Schakowsky and Luis Gutierrez endorsed Newman in the primary, as did Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand.