Ward 8 Councilmember Trayon White’s mayoral campaign said Friday that he’d survived a challenge to his candidacy filed by opponent — and increasingly bitter rival — At-Large Councilmember Robert White.

Earlier this month, Robert White’s campaign filed a challenge to roughly 2,800 signatures Trayon White had submitted to get on the June primary ballot. Candidates must collect 2,000 signatures from Democratic voters in order to qualify for that ballot.

Robert White’s campaign said it had found “significant discrepancies” in thousands of signatures that the Ward 8 councilmember had submitted to the D.C. Board of Elections in March.

“This is a moment when we need a leader who will bring all the wards of our city together and effectively manage a $20 billion budget to solve the big problems facing our residents,” Robert White said at the time. “We have had eight years of government mismanagement that has cost us millions of dollars. I am running this campaign with the same due diligence and focus on execution that I will bring to office as mayor.”

But Trayon White’s campaign said Friday that the D.C. BOE had made a preliminary finding that 2,192 of the nearly 2,800 challenged signatures were valid. That leaves Trayon White with 2,199 total signatures, 199 more than he needs to make it onto the primary ballot this June.

“It is disappointing that Robert White would stoop this low to be deceitful and divisive, ignoring my request to inquire about his challenge the week before,” Trayon White said in a press release about the preliminary finding. “We are running a clean campaign to empower the people, nothing more, nothing less.”

The preliminary finding doesn’t end the challenge wholesale, however — if Robert White’s campaign does not move to withdraw their challenge at this point, it will remain active and proceed to a public hearing, says BOE spokesperson Nick Jacobs. The BOE’s deadline to reach a decision on all signature challenges is April 25.

Zoe Ades, Robert White’s deputy campaign manager, tells Axios the campaign has “no plans to make any changes” to their challenge before a hearing scheduled for April 19.

Aristotle Theresa, a spokesperson for Trayon White’s campaign, tells DCist/WAMU that the campaign learned about the preliminary finding in a letter from BOE this morning. Jacobs says the BOE has communicated the finding to both campaigns.

“We just urge Robert White not to challenge BOE. They’ve already challenged us,” Theresa tells DCist/WAMU. “But, if they do, we’re ready for it. We have the signatures.”

Robert White’s campaign team declined to comment on the announcement.

If Trayon White’s team officially overcomes the signature hurdle, they’ll have yet another headache to contend with: The Washington City Paper reported on Friday that the councilmember may fall short of the fundraising totals necessary to qualify for the city’s public financing program. This is partly due to 11 donors who exceeded the $200 donation limit, and whose donations are thus voided by the Office of Campaign Finance.

Héctor Alejandro Arzate contributed reporting.