Rep. Leonard Lance’s team doesn’t think New Jersey will have to wait to get a result in the seventh congressional district’s House race.
“I hope right after 8 o’clock,” Lance campaign manager Jim Hilk said. “Turnout like this can throw something off like this. I have confidence in the clerks in the district and the board of elections to turn things around, but I feel confident we’ll have a definitive win for Leonard tonight.”
The race is one of an irregularly high number of competitive ones in the state. As is the case with races in the third and 11th districts, President Donald Trump’s first two years in office have animated Democratic voters in districts where they don’t typically come out in large numbers, at least not in midterm elections.
Lance, who’s had a long career as an elected official that started when he was appointed to the state Assembly in February of 1991, has won by double digits in every House election since 2008, when he was first elected to the House.
But despite the congressman’s mild-mannered nature and his reputation as one of the Republican party’s moderates, Lance is likely no less vulnerable to backlash over Trump than Rep. Tom MacArthur and Republican House candidate Jay Webber, who is also a member of the Assembly.
Lance’s camp said turnout in the seventh looks to be high across the board, and while they says that’s to their benefit, there’s no guarantee that that’s the case.
If the race ends up tight enough to be decided by yet-uncounted provisional and vote-by-mail ballots, the state could be waiting days or even weeks to see who wins a seat that could well decide control of the House.
That prospect might upset nervous race watchers at home, and it’s certainly more likely than not that the race is called shortly — in a relative sense — after polls close at 8 p.m. At least, Hilk says so.
“We’re ready for anything, but again, we feel confident that there’s going to be a result tonight,” Hilk said.