U.S. Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-7) has unofficially defeated Republican challenger Tom Kean, Jr.

Battleground Somerset put the incumbent Democrat over the top with an 11K-vote margin of victory.

Kean ran a much-disparaged race against the incumbent, silently acquiescing to GOP smears and failing to transmit substance as he desperately tried to invoke the Kean name.

The long-serving state senate minority leader is the son of former Governor Tom Kean, Sr., and his candidacy represented a concentrated attack by the national GOP.

It is the third federal race Kean  has lost in as many tries.

As for Malinowski, the Democrat’s unofficial victory is his second against a Republican scion. In 2018, he knocked off Leonard Lance, Kean’s predecessor as the state senate minority leader.