Republican U.S. Senate candidate Ed Gillespie conceded his Virginia Senate race on Friday to Democratic incumbent Sen. Mark Warner, telling supporters that he has no plan to seek a recount of more than 2.1 million votes cast – even though state law entitles him to one.

The final vote tally from the State Board of Elections will show Warner ahead by less than 17,000 votes, or a margin of about three-quarters of 1 per cent.

'The votes just aren't there,' Gillespie said Friday, adding that he called Warner earlier in the day to congratulate him.

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Virginia Republican Senate candidate Ed Gillespie told his supporters on Election Day that his race was too close to call, but he gave up the fight three days later

Warner has 49 percent of the vote, Gillespie has 48 percent and Libertarian Robert Sarvis has 2 percent.

Sarvis played the role of spoiler, earning verbal attacks from the state's conservative Republicans.

'This is why the political right needs to be united,' a Northern Virginia GOP political operative told MailOnline in an email Friday. 'A Sarvis comes along on an ego trip and produces an anomaly like this in the middle of an otherwise devastating landslide. It's frustrating.'

Warner, a former governor who is one of Virginia's most popular politicians, had been expected to handily win a second term. But Gillespie, a former Republican National Committee chairman, rode a wave of support for GOP candidates nationwide, and almost knocked Warner out of the Senate despite being outspent heavily.

On Thursday, Warner told reporters he was confident that his lead would hold up. He said it would be unprecedented in Virginia for such a lead to evaporate in either the canvass, as the formal counting process is called, or a recount.

Warner said he was focusing now on his next term, which would begin in January, and planned to promote a centrist agenda that could attract bipartisan support.

He said he wants 'to show that we can get the Senate to actually work.'

'I will spend every day working to get the Senate back in the business of solving problems and not simply scoring political points,' Warner said in a statement.

'I will work with anyone, Republican or Democrat, to shake-up this dysfunctional Congress and move us toward common ground.'

Gillespie's concession did not change the balance of the Senate. Tuesday's elections put Republicans in control with at least 52 of 100 seats in the chamber.

The Alaska race between Democratic Sen. Mark Begich and GOP challenger Dan Sullivan remains uncalled, and in Louisiana, Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu and Republican Bill Cassidy are competing in a Dec. 6 runoff.