An angry national electorate dissatisfied with the Democratic leadership it elected two years ago was poised Tuesday to complete a congressional purge to match forecasts of national pundits.

But Maine’s two congressional Democrats appeared poised to withstand the GOP tide.

With several rural precincts left to be counted, U.S. Rep. Mike Michaud of Millinocket was the projected winner over Republican challenger Jason Levesque of Auburn.

At 10:30 p.m. CNN called Michaud the winner, 57 to 43 percent. Shortly thereafter, the Associated Press had called the race for Michaud.

Despite those results, Levesque emerged from his hotel room at 11 p.m. to say it was too early to concede.

“Only 20 percent of the ballots have been counted,” he said. “We don’t concede until the ballots have been counted.”

He added, “There’s a lot of rural towns that haven’t been counted and that’s what we expected. This is going exactly the way we planned.”

According to unofficial results reported by the Bangor Daily News, Michaud led Republican challenger Jason Levesque 56 percent to 44 percent with just 23 percent of precincts reporting Tuesday night.

Michaud, reached at his campaign headquarters in Millinocket late Tuesday night, said he was pleased with the vote so far.

“It’s been very heartwarming,” he said. “One of the things I kept hearing while campaigning was that voters were happy that I ran a positive campaign.”

He said his campaign contrasted sharply with Levesque’s, who used “talking points he was receiving from Washington D.C.”

“I ran on my record and my opponent tried to distort that record with language from Washington,” Michaud said. “Maine voters saw through that.”

Local unofficial results had Michaud carrying several towns, including Lewiston, Farmington, Bethel, Hanover, Mexico, Oxford, Poland, Gilead and Newry.

Levesque won Minot, Lincoln Plantation and Turner.

Levesque watched results at a party at the Hilton Garden Inn in Auburn Tuesday night. He appeared several times to talk with supporters, who anxiously awaited results.

Despite some early favorable results for Levesque, the challenger received a blow when Lewiston went to Michaud, 6,969 to 4,747.

Levesque emerged from his hotel room to tell the crowd he’d won Lincoln and Turner. His campaign told the crowd that Republican GOP gubernatorial candidate Paul LePage had won Lewiston, but didn’t mention Levesque’s loss there.

“Well, we won Lincoln and Turner,” Levesque said. “It’s too early to tell.”

The GOP challenger ran a feisty campaign that attacked Michaud’s votes on the national health care bill, stimulus spending, and the cap-and-trade bill. Levesque, following the playbook for other Republican congressional candidates, also sought to erode Michaud’s Blue Dog image by linking him with U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

In this election, Pelosi was toxic to incumbent Democrats, just as President George W. Bush was to sitting Republicans in 2008.

A Public Policy Poll released in September showed Levesque within seven points of Michaud, but subsequent surveys gave Michaud double-digit leads.

Michaud also benefited from a campaign war chest nearly twice the size of his challenger. Latest  finance reports show the Democrat with nearly $1 million in campaign donations, much of it from labor and business political action committees.

Levesque, by contrast, had about $500,000 less than Michaud. Eighty-two percent of his funding came from individual donors.

The funding disparity appeared to hamper Levesque in the closing days of the campaign, forcing him to run Internet ads instead of TV spots.

Levesque campaigned almost the entire day in the Lewiston-Auburn region. Michaud campaigned here early before heading to his campaign headquarters in Millinocket.

This morning, a woman strode toward the entrance of the Multi-Purpose Center in Lewiston, where Michaud was campaigning.

“Hi Mike,” she shouted.

Three heads turned in her direction.

One of them was Michaud’s, who had propped open one of the entrance doors with his back. He juggled a cup of hot chocolate and a Blackberry, but managed to shakes hands with incoming voters.

A U.S. Army Reserve retired veteran walked out of the building and turned to Michaud saying, “You got it. If I could have voted twice, I would have.”

A woman followed: “Good luck, Mr. Michaud,” she said.

Across the river, Levesque was walking into Happy Days Diner in New Auburn behind U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine.

Levesque, dressed in dark slacks, a blue dress shirt and red tie, introduced himself as a candidate for the 2nd Congressional District.

“I’d be honored to have your vote today,” Levesque told the diners, explaining he was a husband, father and businessman who grew up in Auburn.

He said he hoped to work with Snowe to create the right environment for more jobs.

“I’d like to follow in her footsteps,” Levesque said, pointing out that Snowe has held elective office for as long as he’s been alive.

“I voted for you yesterday,” said David Thibaudeau of Auburn, who sat eating eggs and a potato pancake.

Thibaudeau, 62, a registered Republican, said he was laid off from Poland Spring bottling. Tired of looking for work in a lousy job market, he decided to retire instead.