Malinowski's Lead Over Kean In 7th Congressional Race Narrows

CENTRAL JERSEY — As more votes are continuing to be counted Democratic incumbent Tom Malinowski's lead over Republican challenger Tom Kean Jr. in the 7th Congressional District race is narrowing.

Just after midnight on Election Day, the Associated Press declared Malinowski the winner in the race with about 60 percent of the districts reporting in. Read More: Malinowski Wins In NJ 7th Congressional Election, AP Says

As of Thursday, 584 of 639 precincts are now reporting in the 7th District, or 91.39 percent.

Here are the latest vote totals, according to The Associated Press (incumbent*):

• Democrat Tom Malinowski*: 197,333
• Republican Tom Kean Jr.: 188,735

Malinowski delivered a speech on his projected re-election on Nov. 5, which was streamed to Facebook live on his page - facebook.com/malinowskifornj.

However, Kean said he will not concede as not all of the ballots have been counted.

"It is WAY too early to call this race," Tom Kean Jr.'s Campaign Manager Harrison Neely told Patch. "Tom Kean Jr. is not out of it yet." Read More: Kean Won't Concede As Malinowski Speaks: 7th Congressional Race

Union County is reported 217,616 ballots were counted as of Wednesday night out of 372,854 registered voters.

Union County Clerk Joanne Rajoppi said there are still about 40,000 ballots left to be counted. She expected those to be counted by Friday.

In Somerset County, 171,220 ballots were counted as of Monday night out of 256,911 registered voters.

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