Kim defeats GOP challenger, wins 3rd term in House

Democratic incumbent Andy Kim cruised to a third term representing the 3rd Congressional District in New Jersey. Late Tuesday, he led Republican challenger Bob Healey by almost 6%.

Analysts believed that Kim would hold on to his seat based on redistricting alone. The more conservative Ocean County was removed from its boundaries in favor of more Democratic areas of Mercer County and a small part of Monmouth County that leans Republican.

Though the district now leaned more Democratic overall, Kim said he wasn’t sure that everything was going to come together.

“There’s always the demographic issues,” he said. “But then we also recognize that nearly half the district is brand new. And I wasn’t sure how that kind of engagement was going to happen.”

The race was called for Kim despite troubles with voting machines in Mercer County. The incumbent said his team was on the phone with county and state officials “nonstop” during the day.

“My main priority was hoping that every voter that wanted to vote, got to vote, and that’s what we were focused on,” he said.

Kim said that Bob Healey, his Republican challenger did not reach out to him.

The victory capped a night where most of New Jersey’s incumbent members of Congress were re-elected.

As of 12:16 a.m. Wednesday, only the 7th District wasn’t called. Democratic incumbent Tom Malinowski was trailing his Republican challenger Tom Kean Jr.