U.S. Rep. Josh Harder on Monday declared victory in his congressional race over Stockton Mayor Kevin Lincoln.
Harder, a Democrat first elected to Congress in 2018, issued a statement about his win in last week’s election for California’s District 9 congressional seat, which represents parts of San Joaquin, Contra Costa and Stanislaus counties.
Harder had 100,646 votes across the three counties as of Monday, compared to 93,522 for Lincoln.
In his statement Monday, Harder said: “Tallying up every vote takes time, and with today’s results, we are confident we’ve won. I’m incredibly grateful and honored our community put their faith in me once again.”
The overwhelming majority of the votes counted for Harder as of Friday had come from San Joaquin County, which had recorded the most votes.
Lincoln, a Republican, has not yet conceded and on Monday night said he was awaiting the counting of the rest of the ballots in the race.
“There are tens of thousands of ballots that are still uncounted. We owe it to the people of the Valley and to our democratic process to ensure that every voice is heard,” he said.
Lincoln became Stockton’s mayor in 2020 by defeating Michael Tubbs, a Democrat who was elected in 2016 as the city’s youngest and first Black mayor and championed universal basic income programs. An HBO documentary earlier in 2020 titled “Stockton on My Mind” followed Tubbs during his tenure as mayor.
Harder defeated incumbent Republican Jeff Denham in 2018 and won his two subsequent elections to stay in Congress ahead of this year’s race. In 2022, he defeated San Joaquin County Supervisor and Republican Tom Patti, who was running to replace Lincoln as Stockton’s mayor, but as of the county’s latest results, was losing to former Councilmember and Democrat Christina Fugazi.