By: James Brooks, Corinne Smith and Yereth Rosen This article was last updated Nov. 4 at 2:55 a.m. Alaska’s closely watched U.S. Senate race remained too close to call early Wednesday morning as Democratic challenger Mary Peltola led incumbent Republican Dan Sullivan by only a few hundred votes with thousands more remaining to be counted. The result of the race could extend already-enormous Democratic gains in the Senate or offer a gram of relief to Republicans who endured heavy losses on Election Day. With 394 of 401 precincts reporting results Tuesday night, Peltola had 48% of voters’ first-choice votes. Sen. Dan S. Sullivan had 47.7%. “I’m confident when all the votes are counted, I will have the honor of representing you in the United States Senate,” Sullivan told supporters in a speech Tuesday night. As of 3 a.m. Wednesday, the candidates were separated by just 626 votes out of 213,873 cast.  Independent challenger Dan J. Sullivan had 1.7%, or 3,583 votes, and Republican challenger Gerald Heikes had 2.3%, or 4,821. Thousands of absentee and early votes cast before Election Day remain uncounted, as do some votes from rural precincts believed to favor Peltola. “The results are not going to be