For the first time in 30 years a Democrat has been elected to Congress to represent New Jersey's 5th Congressional District.

Democrat Josh Gottheimer defeated incumbent Republican Rep. Scott Garrett in the congressional race Tuesday.

Gottheimer has never held an elected office before, but is a well-known Clinton speechwriter and advisor. He says that he intentionally kept his campaign away from the presidential race and believes that there is a middle ground in a Republican dominated House.

"I know that Speaker Ryan is really eager to show that he has plenty of ideas like he has on transportation and infrastructure and the budget that has strong bipartisan support," Gottheimer says. "I'm eager to work with Republicans and Democrats when I get there."

Gottheimer says that he believes that his victory was in part due to his infrastructure and tax cut plan. He says that he also believes that not being a "career politician" helped him.

He also says that he will make sure that he stays in touch with the business community, both large and small businesses.

"I fight to represent them and actually spend a lot of time with businesses in the community," Gottheimer says.

Rep. Garrett did not concede the race right away, but did send out a statement Wednesday that said in part, "While the results of this election were not what I had hoped for, I am proud of the race we ran - we stayed the course and kept the faith."

The statement noticeably did not mention Gottheimer.

Gottheimer says that he would be willing to work with Rep. Garrett if he called.