Kildee beats Junge in race for Flint-area US House seat
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U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee, D-Flint Township, on Wednesday defeated Republican nominee Paul Junge in a contest for a mid-Michigan congressional seat, with the Associated Press calling the race about 10:15 a.m.
As of 2:15 p.m. Wednesday, Kildee led Junge 53%-43% with 99% of the expected vote counted, according to the Associated Press' unofficial count.
Junge called Kildee to concede shortly around 11 a.m. Wednesday, according to Kildee.
The race in the newly drawn 8th Congressional District in the crook of the Michigan Thumb saw Junge, a former TV anchor and Trump administration employee in Washington, trying to knock off Kildee from winning a sixth two-year term.
Come back to www.freep.com for updated results.
Kildee, a member of House Democratic leadership, has had few if any strong challenges since taking over for his uncle, the late U.S. Rep. Dale Kildee, D-Flint, after the 2012 election.
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But the new district joins areas around Flint, Bay City and Saginaw, which have been trending somewhat more Republican in recent elections, with Midland, a traditionally more Republican area, leading some to believe Kildee could face his toughest test yet in the race against Junge, who lives in Grand Blanc.
Still, with late money coming into the district on Kildee's behalf to ward against a surprise, he was expected to hold on. The race was considered a bellwether for how Democrats were doing nationwide. But with the party doing better than expected in competitive races − and having won two tough U.S. House races in Michigan overnight − Kildee was expected to survive the challenge.
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In the race, Junge, who lost a close race to U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Lansing, two years ago, argued that Kildee no longer represented the increasingly conservative nature of the district and was too close to Washington Democratic officials. Kildee, meanwhile, argued that Junge was new to the district and an opportunist who, as an opponent of abortion rights, was out of step with its voters.
Contact Todd Spangler: tspangler@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter@tsspangler.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Dan Kildee defeats Paul Junge in Flint-area US House race
