CHICAGO (AP) _ Democratic Congressman Bill Foster is ahead in the race to keep the seat he won earlier this year in a special election.

Foster is leading Republican businessman Jim Oberweis in Illinois’ 14th Congressional District in the race to hang on to former GOP House Speaker Dennis Hastert’s old district.

With 35 percent of precincts reporting, Foster had 61 percent and Oberweis had 39 percent.

Foster is a Geneva physicist who first went to Washington in March after beating Oberweis in a special election to fill the remainder of Hastert’s term after he retired.

The district stretches from the far-western Chicago suburbs to almost to the Mississippi River.