Congressman Derek Kilmer has won a third term in Congress.

Kilmer, the incumbent and a Gig Harbor Democrat, was easily dispatching Republican challenger Todd Bloom for the District 6 position in the U.S. House of Representatives in early vote returns on Election Night.

Kilmer was ahead with 62.4 percent of the vote, while Bloom had tallied 37.5 percent.

So far, 81,396 votes have been counted in the contest, with Kilmer collecting 50,807 votes, and Bloom, 30,589.

Bloom — who was taking his first shot at elected office — had centered his campaign on the economy, national security, taxes and health care.

Kilmer, by contrast, vowed to help keep the economy on track and fix the broken and unproductive political system in the nation’s capital.