Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski has conceded defeat to upstart "Tea Party" favorite Joe Miller after a day of counting ballots in their razor-thin Republican primary, the Associated Press reports.

The AP said Murkowski was behind Miller, a lawyer and Gulf War veteran, by 1,630 votes on Tuesday night. She had been behind by 1,668 votes after last week's primary.

Murkowski, a member of the Senate GOP leadership, is the seventh member of Congress to be turned out of office so far in a primary season notable for its anti-establishment tilt. Murkowski, a former state legislator, was first appointed to the Senate in 2002 by her father, Frank, when he was Alaska's governor. She was seeking her second full term in the Senate, where her dad also served.

"We all know that this has been a long week, a terribly long week," she said at her campaign headquarters. While there are still outstanding absentee and other ballots to count, Murkowski conceded: "I don't see a scenario where the primary will turn out in my favor."

Miller caught the political world by surprise with his challenge to Murkowski, who was better known and better funded. He was backed by former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, a favorite of the small-government Tea Party movement, who has her own history with the Murkowski family. Palin defeated Frank Murkowski for governor in 2006.

In the final days of the primary campaign, Palin recorded an automated "robo" call to help get out the vote for Miller, who is from Fairbanks. The Tea Party Express, a California-based group, spent at least $550,000 to help Miller.

Palin just sent out a note on her Twitter account: "Do you believe in miracles?" and congratulated Miller, while also thanking Murkowski for her service.

Miller will face Democratic nominee Scott McAdams, the mayor of Sitka, in November. While Alaska's junior senator, Mark Begich, is a Democrat, there is a strong GOP bent in the Frontier State. In the 2008 presidential race, Republican John McCain won Alaska by nearly 22 percentage points.

Lisa Murkowski is the third incumbent U.S. senator to be rejected by voters this year. Sen. Arlen Specter, who bolted the GOP party last year, lost his Democratic primary in Pennsylvania and Sen. Robert Bennett, a Utah Republican, didn't even make his party's primary ballot.

House members who have lost primaries include Reps. Alan Mollohan, D-W.Va., Parker Griffith, R-Ala., Bob Inglis, R-S.C., and Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, D-Mich.

(Posted by Catalina Camia)