AUSTIN — Nearly two weeks after Election Day, Democrat Gina Ortiz Jones on Monday conceded to Republican incumbent Will Hurd in the race for Texas' most competitive congressional district.

"While we came up short this time, we ran a race of which we can be proud," Jones said in a prepared statement. "I remain committed to serving my community and country, and I wish Will Hurd the courage to fight for TX-23 in the way in which our district deserves."

Hurd, who declared victory the day after the election, even as Jones contended that the 689 votes that separated them made the race too close to call, again asserted his win Friday after a majority of the provisional ballots had been counted in the district saying the people of "the 23rd Congressional District of Texas made their voices heard and clearly chose Will Hurd."

Following Jones' concession Monday, Hurd thanked his family, friends and supporters for his victory and also nodded to his opponent for a competitive race.

"I want to thank my opponent and her supporters for engaging in the democratic process. To thrive, our democracy needs a vigorous competition of ideas, and whether you voted for me or not, I will need your help," he said in a prepared statement. "To the residents of TX-23, thank you for giving me something that hasn't happened in over a decade, the privilege of representing you for a third term. I will continue fighting for you every day in Congress."

The state's only true swing congressional district, with a nearly evenly split between Republicans and Democrats, stretches from El Paso to San Antonio and is more than 70 percent Hispanic.

Hurd, an African-American, surprised many when he was first elected in 2014. He'll be the first person in more than two decades to hold the office for three consecutive terms.

Democrats made the district a main target of their midterm campaign and spent millions of dollars to help Jones. They sought to tie Hurd to President Donald Trump in a district that covers more than 800 miles of the Texas-Mexico border.

But Hurd, a moderate Republican and former CIA agent, is one of Trump's most vocal critics in Congress. He disagrees with the president on how to secure the border and has criticized his interactions with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Hurd has also filed bipartisan immigration legislation that includes a pathway to citizenship for immigrants who were brought to the country illegally as children. And he gained national attention for road-tripping from Texas to Washington with fellow U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke, a Democrat.

It's this approach, as well as what he calls his "independent relationship" with his constituents, that led to Hurd's re-election win over Jones. He makes numerous trips to meet with voters in Dairy Queens across his district, which he has dubbed the "DC to DQ tour."

Hurd is used to close races, winning by only 2,422 votes in 2014 and 3,051 in 2016.

On Election Day, several news outlets called the race for Hurd early in the night. But as votes continued to come in, Jones made up ground and at one point overnight surpassed Hurd in the unofficial count provided on the Texas Secretary of State's website.

The secretary of state said Medina County, one of the last to turn in vote tallies, made a mistake when providing the total counts. The county said all precincts had reported, but did not include the votes in the final precinct.

Once that final precinct turned in its votes, the state updated its website to show Hurd back up by 689 votes.

Jones refused to give up and aggressively pursued the counting of provisional, military and mail-in ballots. She urged supporters who had cast provisional ballots to return to their election administrators and ensure they had been counted. Last week, she sued the Bexar County election administrator for not making public a list of provisional voters and asked for a 48-hour extension for the counting of their ballots.

A Bexar County judge denied that extension, leaving Jones no recourse other than to wait on the ballots already validated, hoping she could make up Hurd's more than 1,000-vote lead after provisional votes were counted.

Jones showed no sign of giving up, even attending the freshmen orientation session in Washington last week to be prepared in case the final counts put her over the top.

Election watchers kept their eyes peeled for a recount. Under Texas law, a candidate may request a recount if the difference between the number of votes received by the petitioner and the number of votes received by the person elected is less than 10 percent of the votes received by the person elected.

Since the difference of votes between Jones and Hurd was less than 10 percent of the votes Hurd received — 10,290 — Jones could have called for a recount.

But on Monday she opted against that and conceded.

"Our campaign was based on the belief that everyone is equal — equally deserving to be heard at the ballot box and served in our communities," Jones said. "We worked hard to make this a reality, understanding this is the only path toward the more perfect union that our founders envisioned."