NJ-11: The crowded, expensive race to fill Mikie Sherrill's NJ congressional seat

By 11:59 p.m. on Thursday, New Jersey Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill was no longer a member of the U.S. Congress and the clock started to fill her now vacant seat.

Gov. Phil Murphy announced the special election schedule last week: On Feb. 5, both parties will hold primaries to nominate Democratic and Republican candidates to be the next representative from New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District, which spans parts of Essex, Morris and Passaic counties. The general election will follow on April 16.

Since it became clear that Sherrill wouldn’t be returning to Congress, the crop of Democrats throwing their hats into the ring has grown to the double digits. So far, Randolph Mayor Joe Hathaway is the only Republican to join the fray.

When Sherrill first won the seat in 2018, she bested her Republican challenger by more than 14 percentage points – a 37-point shift for Democrats that year. However, Sherrill’s rise in the district belied the seat’s long and reliably red history. Before her victory, Republicans held the district for 34 years.



https://gothamist.com/news/the-crowded-expensive-race-to-fill-mikie-sherrills-nj-congressional-seat