Malinowski Maintains Lead Over Kean In District 7 Race

CENTRAL JERSEY — The race for the 7th Congressional District seat remains tight as of Tuesday with only 4,500 votes separating Democratic incumbent Tom Malinowski and Republican challenger Tom Kean Jr.

Counting of the ballots resumes Tuesday with thousands still left to come in.

As of Tuesday night, the Associated Press is reporting 96.09 percent of the precincts are reporting in, with Kean Jr. is behind Malinowski roughly by 4,500 votes.

Kean has crept closer to Malinowski since Thursday when he was reportedly behind roughly 8,500 votes. However, while Kean did get closer, Malinowski is also gaining votes and remains in the lead.

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

• Democrat Tom Malinowski*: 212,184
• Republican Tom Kean Jr.: 207,710

In Somerset County, the vote tally has not been updated since Friday night when 176,918 ballots were counted out of 256,911 registered voters.

As of Monday, there are about 6,000 vote-by-mail ballots left to be counted and then provisional ballots will be counted in Somerset County.

Union County reported 236,959 ballots were counted as of Monday out of 372,854 registered voters.

Union County Clerk Joanne Rajoppi said there were still between 25,000 and 30,000 ballots left including provisional ballots and hand count ballots as of Monday morning.

Official results are not expected until Nov. 20 at the earliest.

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

Malinowski's campaign remained confident he would prevail in the election.

"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.

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

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