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PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — Democrat Andy Kim has claimed victory after a very tight race in New Jersey’s 3rd Congressional District, but Republican incumbent Tom MacArthur is not ready to concede. On Tuesday night, Kim and MacArthur both held 49 percent of the vote with votes still being tallied.

“While the polls closed four hours ago, the race is still too close to call, there will not be a result tonight,” said a Kim spokesperson late Tuesday night.

On Wednesday, thousands of mail-in ballots were counted giving Kim the apparent lead.

“With the vast majority of the votes now in and counted and based on the numbers we saw in Burlington County today, we have built a substantial lead,” said Kim during an announcement on Wednesday night. “I am proud to announce that we have won this hard-fought race.”

MacArthur, a two-term representative, says there are votes that still need to be counted.

“This has been a hard fought campaign and like Andy Kim, I’m ready to see it come to an end. I have always said that I will be guided by the voters of the district and there are nearly 7,000 more of them who haven’t been heard from yet. We must ensure that their votes – and all votes – are counted in a transparent way that protects the integrity of this election.”

Burlington County has updated their NJ-3 results after counting mail in ballots,, Kim picks up about 5k more votes than MacArthur, that should give him the overall lead now — Cleve Bryan CBS3 (@CleveBryan) November 7, 2018

Kim says he chose to run because he strongly opposes MacArthur’s work to replace parts of the Affordable Care Act.

Recent polls had Kim and MacArthur locked in a dead heat heading into Election Day.

MacArthur dominated the vote back in 2016 winning the district by 20 percentage points.