Democrat T.J. Cox defeated incumbent Republican U.S. Representative David Valadao in the 21^st Congressional District in California.

On Monday, the Associated Press retracted its earlier prediction that Valadao won the race in state’s farm-belt district. The media organization’s noted that the vote count showed that Cox "has taken the lead."

The AP is retracting its call in the race for California's 21st Congressional District. The AP had declared Republican David Valadao the winner. However, Democrat T.J. Cox has taken the lead in the vote count. No new call will be made until the results are certified.

— AP Politics (@AP_Politics) November 27, 2018

On Thursday night, Cox declared victory after Kings County released its final vote count, which increased his lead.

In a statement, Cox said, “I am elated to announce that we have won the election…He added that family, staff, volunteers, and supporters “never gave up” even if his chance of winning the race was “dim.”

Cox said his message resonated with voters

Furthermore, he said, “Voters across the district resonated with our message of expanding healthcare, creating good jobs, and fighting for our families’ futures… I am honored to be the next representative serving all of our communities throughout the 21st District. Now that the election is over, it’s time to go to work.”

Valadao initially had a significant lead over his opponent—around 4,400 votes on Nov. 6. However, his advantage declined gradually as election officials counted mail-in and provisional ballots.

Based on the election results, Cox gained 50.2 percent or 56,634 votes while Valadao obtained 49.8 percent or 56,105 votes. The Democrat won by 529 votes.

Since 2012, Valadao represented the state’s 21^st Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives. Democrats have been targeting to district, which has a large population of Hispanic voters (71 percent). During the 2016 presidential election, Hillary Clinton carried the district by more than 15 percent.

An official declaration of Cox’s victory will mean the Democratic Party flipped seven seats held by Republicans in the state. Therefore, the Party gained a total of 40 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives this midterm elections.