With ballots for almost half of Virginia counted, state Sen. Mark Herring’s (D) campaign for attorney general estimates that its candidate has continued to widen his lead over state Sen. Mark Obenshain (R).

Herring attorney Marc Elias told reporters at a confernece call Tuesday afternoon that Herring so far had gained 742 votes while Obenshain had gained 300 leading to a net increase of 442 votes in the Democrat’s favor. Elias cautioned though that their estimates of the results were under the assumption that legal challenges to the votes being recounted would not be upheld. But Elias said it wouldn’t make much of a difference either way.

“In this case it doesn’t make a huge amount of difference,” Elias said. “There haven’t been a huge amount of challenges over all. There have been more challenges to Herring ballots than there have been to Obenshain ballots.”

In response to the Herring campaign’s estimates, the Obenshain campaign would only say that the recount was not yet concluded.

“This is an ongoing process,” Obenshain communications director Paul Logan told TPM in an email. “It’s important to see it through and ensure that we get an accurate result. That’s been our goal since the minute polls closed.”