Roy Moore has frequently said, in social media posts, that he will never give up the fight.

And after he lost the Alabama Senate election on Tuesday to Democrat Doug Jones, Moore is sticking with that mantra -- refusing to concede the race to Jones.

He waited more than a hour after the race was called to address supporters in downtown Montgomery late Tuesday night, then told them to wait some more.

"Realize when vote is this close, it's not over and we still have to go by the rules," Moore told the crowd, which cheered when he appeared on stage.

Even as Moore refused to surrender, Alabama GOP Chair Terry Lathan issued a statement late Tuesday night acknowledging Jones' win -- concluding her statement with "now that this race has ended."

"Alabamians are conservative and have no intentions of moving toward the policies of the Democrat Party," Lathan said in her statement. "If Mr. Jones aligns himself with the liberal Democrats in Washington, Alabama voters will remember his choices in the 2020 U.S. Senate election."

Moore spoke for less than three minutes. He closed by vowing to resume the fight on Wednesday and urged his supporters to stand by his side.

"Let's go home and sleep on it and we'll take it up tomorrow," Moore said before exiting the stage.

Before Moore spoke, campaign chair Bill Armistead explained the process to trigger an automatic recount - which is a difference of less than one-half of 1 percent between the candidates. When Moore took the stage, AL.com had the difference between him and Jones at 0.7 percent with 98 percent of precincts fully reporting.

As of 10:40 p.m. Central time, AL.com reported 100 percent of precincts reporting and Jones having an advantage of 1.5 percent.

Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill is holding a late-night press conference Tuesday to discuss the recount procedure, which Moore announced to his supporters.

Armistead alluded to "military ballots" that have not yet been counted when speaking to the audience.

The cheers that erupted as Moore took the stage, though, were the first in about two hours after Moore appeared to hold a lead throughout much of the night before Jones took control with the late-counted ballots.

The difference in votes between Jones and Moore were about 21,000 - a margin perhaps made all the more painful for Moore as almost 23,000 write-in ballots were cast.

Those write-ins are likely the fallout of the sexual misconduct scandal first reported on Nov. 9 that sabotaged the Moore campaign. Moore has denied the allegations of women who have come forward - including a woman who said, when she was 14 years old, Moore molested her.

"We also know God is always in control," Moore said. "One of the problems with this campaign is we've been painted in an unfavorable and unfaithful light. We've been in a hole, if you will. It reminds me of a passage in Psalm 40."

Moore then quoted the Scripture.

"'I waited patiently for the Lord' -- and that's what we've got to do," Moore said before resuming, "he climbed to me and heard my cry and brought us up also out of the horrible pit, out of the miry clay and set my feet on the rock and established my goings. And put a new song in our mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it and fear it and be moved by that.

"That's what we've got to do is wait on God and let this process play out. The votes are still coming in. We're looking at that."

Updated today, Dec. 12, 2017 at 11:10 p.m. with new information throughout.