Democrat Tom Malinowski, an American diplomat and human rights advocate, narrowly defeated Republican Rep. Leonard Lance in New Jersey’s Seventh Congressional District.

Malinowski worked for former President Barack Obama as the assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor. Toward the end of that administration, the intelligence community concluded that Russia interfered with the 2016 election.

He repeatedly defended the FBI and special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation against attacks by President Trump and condemned the Republican-controlled Congress for failing to act to protect America’s elections from further foreign meddling.

Malinowski, a former advocacy director for Human Rights Watch, is articulate and soft-spoken but expected to make noise over on Capitol Hill. He has been outspoken on what’s needed to protect U.S. democratic institutions, protect American elections, fight Russian propaganda and get money from foreign adversaries out of politics.

“I want our country to stand for what it’s long stood for at home and abroad,” Malinowski told Yahoo News. “It’s not just human rights. It’s whether we are a country where middle-class people can get ahead and pass on a better life to their kids than they experienced themselves. It’s whether we are still a constitutional democracy with checks and balances.”

Tom Malinowski at a rally in Bedminster, N.J., in June. (Photo: Julio Cortez/AP)

Malinowski spoke out against Trump’s stated fondness for Russian President Vladimir Putin and was one of the original champions of the Magnitsky Act, a bipartisan bill signed into law by Obama in 2012 that was intended to punish Russian officials responsible for the death of Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky three years earlier in a Moscow prison. At the State Department, Malinowski was responsible for implementing the Magnitsky Act.

“I believe that the United States is best served by aligning ourselves with countries that share our values and not cozying up with dictators, whether it’s Putin or [North Korean leader] Kim Jong Un or others,” Malinowski said. “I think the Congress needs to exercise a check to make sure that our foreign policy is consistent with what we’ve long stood for in the world.”

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Lance, who was first elected to the House in 2008, is fairly moderate and has more in common with the Republican Party before President Trump’s ascent. His biggest competition in reelection campaigns came during the primaries — until Malinowski came along.

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