Democrats currently ahead in New Jersey's 9th District
The contest to succeed the late Democratic Rep. Bill Pascrell in New Jersey's 9th Congressional District remains a close contest, though Democrats currently have a slight advantage. With 79% of the expected vote in, Democratic state Senator Nellie Pou currently leads Republican Billy Prempeh by five percentage points, 51% to 46%. While ABC News has not yet projected a winner in this race, the Associated Press previously called the race for Pou.
No matter how big the eventual margin may be for Democrats, Prempeh so far has refused to concede. Right now, he's currently trailing Pou by roughly 11,000 votes — a closer-than-expected result in a longtime Democratic district with a partisan lean of D+17.
In a recent interview with CBS News, Prempeh suggested that he could eke out a win. But he's falsely claimed that there are 67,000 votes left uncounted despite reports from Bergen and Passaic Counties that indicate that only around 2,000 mail ballots have not been processed. Pou, meanwhile, has already declared victory, noting that a win would make her the first Latina ever elected to Congress from New Jersey.