Kim's Lead Grows In NJ's 3rd Congressional District

Incumbent Democrat Andy Kim saw his lead expand over Republican David Richter in the race for New Jersey's 3rd Congressional District on Wednesday as election officials continue to tally the ballots from Tuesday's election.

Burlington County officials updated their unofficial totals about 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, reporting 113,978 votes for Kim and 58,530 votes for Richter. In Ocean County, unofficial tallies reported are 82,945 for Richter, and 63,545 for Kim.

The totals have Kim with 177,523 votes to 141,475 votes for Richter, a lead of 36,048.

Kim, 38, is seeking his second term in the House of Representatives seat that represents parts of Ocean and Burlington counties. Richter, 54, and two independents — Martin Weber, 56, and Robert Shapiro — were hoping to unseat him.

Both counties still have votes to count, however. Ocean County Clerk Scott Colabella said there were about 49,000 votes to be counted there as of Wednesday morning. Burlington County started the day needing to count about 55,000, according to Dave Levinsky with the Burlington County public information office. Both counties said those numbers do not include mail-in ballots that were postmarked by Tuesday and arrive by 8 p.m. Nov. 10, nor do they include provisional ballots cast. Read more: In Ocean County, 49K Votes Still To Be Counted

Kim's lead is nearly 10 times the number of votes that divided him and Tom MacArthur when he won in 2018. His 34,000-vote lead over Richter led the Associated Press to declare Kim the winner of the race on Tuesday. Read more: Kim Wins In NJ's 3rd Congressional District: AP

But neither Kim nor Richter were seeing the election race as decided.

"There are still an unknown number of votes cast provisionally and an unknown number of ballots returned to polling locations yesterday," said Tom Bonforti, spokesman for Richter's campaign.

Kim, on Wednesday night, tweeted a message thanking his supporters but saying the race was not over.

"There are still some more ballots to count before we know for sure," Kim said. "We see right now across our nation the critical importance of ensuring we get this right. Our democracy depends on it." Read more: Kim, Richter Still Waiting On NJ 3rd District Vote Tallies

Kim's 2018 victory made him the first Democrat to hold the seat since John Adler was defeated by Republican Jon Runyan in the 2010 election. Adler held the seat for one term; before Adler, the seat was held by H. James Saxton for 16 years.

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