WASHINGTON:
Ami Bera, the only Indian-American in the current Congress, has slightly extended his lead over his nearest Republican in the continuing recounting of votes, as per the latest report.
If elected, Bera would be the senior-most and fifth Indian-American to be elected to the US Congress this general election - a record in itself.
According to the latest update from the
Sacramento County
Registrar of Voters, Bera now leads Republican rival
Scott Jones
with 103,831 votes to 101,248 votes, after the Registrar tallied roughly 36,000 more ballots.
Bera's lead over Jones grew from 2,033 to 2,583, a gain of 550 votes.
"The reason we're in this strong position is because of our volunteers, so I'm going to thank them and continue to give the Registrar of Voters and her hard-working team the time to do their jobs," he said.
In 2012, Bera led Republican
Dan Lungren
by 184 votes the morning after election day, and his lead eventually grew to 9,191 votes.
In 2014, Bera was down by more than 3,000 votes on election night, and he came back to win by 1,455 votes.