Thus begining an eight-month term — on top of a new campaign.

On Thursday, Congressman-elect Conor Lamb will be sworn into office, roughly a month after a special election that sent him to Washington, D.C., on behalf of Pennsylvania’s 18th Congressional District.

Lamb’s Oath of Office will be administered at around 5 p.m., during the House’s evening vote, House Speaker Paul Ryan’s office confirmed for The Incline.

Pulling off an upset in a reliably Republican corner of Pennsylvania, Lamb, a Democrat, was elected to represent the 18th Congressional District following last month’s special election to replace former congressman Tim Murphy. The race between Lamb and Republican Rick Saccone was about as close as it gets, coming within less than a hundred votes at one point. Vote tabulations and reviews continued for weeks and Republican Party representatives vowed to challenge the results while alleging irregularities that may have tainted the balloting. In the end, no formal challenges of the results were made and all four counties with portions in the 18th — Allegheny, Washington, Westmoreland and Greene — had officially certified their results by last week.

The final district-wide vote total had Lamb with a 755 vote lead over Saccone, 114,102 to 113,347. Libertarian candidate Drew Miller earned 1,381 votes.

The certified results were then provided to Congress by the Pennsylvania Department of State, ensuring Lamb could be sworn in after Congress returned from spring break. The House was back in session as of Monday.

Lamb’s swearing-in will set off his eight-month term in the 18th District, which is being replaced as part of a statewide redistricting push. Lamb is already running in the May primary for what will be the 17th District under a new congressional map. Saccone, meanwhile, is running in the new 14th District.

In last month’s special election, both men ran to replace former congressman Tim Murphy, who resigned last year amid a scandal involving a mistress and uncovered text messages in which Murphy — a pro-life Republican — reportedly urged the woman to get an abortion.

Lamb’s campaign did not immediately return a request for comment on the Oath of Office being administered this week. In March, Lamb told WTAE he remained focused on representing 18th District voters and would find time for campaigning as needed.

“I intend to represent the people of the 18th District this year, like I promised I would, and make sure they have a voice and vote down in Washington, and so that comes first, and we’ll find time for campaigning as we need to,” Lamb said.