Final: Kim beats MacArthur by 3,973

Democrat Andy Kim unseated two-term Republican Rep. Tom MacArthur by 3,973 votes, according to the final results of the 2018 mid-term election released by the New Jersey Secretary of State.

The race for the 3rd district was not decided until vote-by-mail and provisional ballots were counted. Kim, a former Obama White House staffer, declared victory the evening after the general election, but MacArthur did not concede his defeat until November 14.

Kim won 50.0% to 48.7%, with independent Lawrence Berlinski taking 1.3%.  Berlinski’s 3,902 votes was slightly less than Kim’s total margin.

The district is 58% Burlington County and 42% Ocean County.  In 2018, Burlington cast 59% of the votes in the race for Congress.

Kim won Burlington by 34,630 votes (59.5%-39.9%), while MacArthur carried Ocean by 30,657 votes (60.9%-37%).

In Willingboro, the biggest Democratic stronghold in the 3rd district, Kim won 91% of the vote, out polling MacArthur by 11,325 votes

Kim carried politically competitive municipalities like Cinnaminson (by 690 votes), Evesham (by 2,960 votes) and Pemberton Township (by 1,126 votes).

In the 2014 mid-term election, when two-term Rep. Jon Runyan did not seek re-election, 60% of all votes cast were from the Burlington portion of the district.

Democrat Aimee Belgard, then a Burlington freeholder, won Burlington by 352 votes, 49.7%-49,4%.  MacArthur won Ocean by 18,286 (61%-36%), giving him an overall win of 54%-44% a margin of 17,934.

When MacArthur ran for a second term in 2016, he won with 59% in a race that Democrats did not seriously contest.  Burlington’s percentage of the total vote dropped by three points, to 57%.

Donald Trump carried the 3rd in 2016 by six points, 51%-45%, over Hillary Clinton.

The district has 12,058 more Democrats than Republicans.