'This Race Is Not Over Yet:' Malinowski vs. Kean District 7 Race

Updated as of 6 p.m. Friday

CENTRAL JERSEY — The gap between Democratic incumbent Tom Malinowski over Republican challenger Tom Kean Jr. is closing as votes continue to be counted in the 7th Congressional District race.

"Every vote needs to be counted in this election before anyone can claim victory or defeat. They are counting ballots in the order they were received, and we know from tracking returns there was heavy Republican turnout in the days leading up to Election Day. This race is not over yet," said Harrison Neely, Kean Jr.'s campaign manager.

As of Friday morning, the Associated Press is reporting Kean Jr. is behind Malinowski roughly by 6,000 votes.

As of Friday at 3:40 p.m., Kean is now behind Malinowski by roughly 5,100 votes. As of 5 p.m., Kean is now behind roughly 4,600 votes. As of 6 p.m. Kean trailed by 4,300 votes.

Kean has crept closer to Malinowski since Thursday when he was reportedly behind roughly 8,500 votes.

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

• Democrat Tom Malinowski*: 208,633
• Republican Tom Kean Jr.: 204,294

"We all have to be patient and trust in the democratic process, but we're confident that when the votes have been counted Tom Malinowski will be re-elected," Daniel Fleiss, with Malinowski's campaign.

Dave Wasserman with Cook Political shared the following tweet about the race:

The Associated Press had already declared Malinowski the winner in the race just after midnight on Election Night with about 60 percent of the districts reporting in at the time. Read More: Malinowski Wins In NJ 7th Congressional Election, AP Says

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 Thursday out of 372,854 registered voters.

Union County Clerk Joanne Rajoppi said there were still about 40,000 ballots left to be counted as of Thursday morning. She expected those to be counted by Friday.

In Somerset County, 176,918 ballots were counted as of Friday night out of 256,911 registered voters.

As of Friday, Nathan Rudy, the spokesman for Somerset County, said there are about 11,000 vote-by-mail ballots left to count and then provisional ballots will be counted. Official results are not expected until Nov. 20 at the earliest.

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