Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ) is heading to the governor’s mansion in January, and with her victory comes the opportunity for a solid blue seat.
Sherrill won handily in the gubernatorial race on Tuesday, which will trigger another election: this time to fill the seat representing New Jersey’s 11th District, which she has represented since flipping it from red to blue in 2018. In 2024, she successfully defended the seat, besting Republican Joseph Belnome 56.5% to 41.8%.
She becomes governor on Jan. 20, and when she resigns her seat will determine when the special election will be held. She has not specified when she plans to leave the House.
“We’ll be working with the leadership in the House as well as our legislature here to, as smoothly as possible, run the special election to get a new person that seat,” Sherrill said during a Wednesday press conference.
The 11th District includes Essex, Morris, and Passaic counties. Passaic County, a centrist area, was decisive in her win on Tuesday, as the district had been a blue stronghold before President Donald Trump won it in 2024. Sherrill flipped the county back to Democrat on Tuesday.
What is the special election process in New Jersey?
The governor could call for a special election, comprised of a primary and general election, as Gov. Phil Murphy (D-NJ) did after the death of the late Rep. Donald Payne Jr. last year.
Under state law, special House primaries must be held between 70 and 76 days after the issuance of the writ of election, with special general elections following 64 to 70 days later. The law does not specify a timeline in which the governor must issue a writ, but it cannot be issued until there is a vacancy.
If Sherrill resigned this weekend, the Democratic primary would take place as early as mid-January.
That process doesn’t sit well with New Jersey leaders, such as Democratic state Sen. Andrew Zwicker and Murphy himself.
“We’ve got a really cumbersome process right now, and that needs to be addressed,” he said on Wednesday.
Zwicker has a bill that would automatically require House vacancies to be filled through both a primary and general election within 74 to 80 days after a vacancy occurs. This would eliminate the need for a governor to issue a writ of election.
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Who will replace Sherrill?
With Sherrill’s departure, it is expected that there will be a crowded Democratic primary field to replace her.
Most notably entering the race already is former Democratic Rep. Tom Malinowski, 60, who launched his bid on Thursday, four years after losing his seat to Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R), who represents the Seventh District in Congress, due to redistricting. Democrats’ new map focused on protecting incumbents such as Sherrill at the expense of Malinowski, who had nearly lost in 2020.
He said this summer he was interested in running for Sherill’s seat if she won the gubernatorial nomination.
“I feel very strongly that we need a Congress that will check the president’s corruption and abuse of power, and go back to doing its job to build an economy that works for people bottom-up rather than billionaire-down,” Malinowski told the New Jersey Globe. “I’ve got the experience, I’ve done it before, and I’ll be ready to do it effectively the day I’m elected.”
Malinowski enters the name with name recognition, but he is not from the 11th District. He told the outlet he’s moving to the 11th District soon.
“I will be the only candidate in the primary who has actually represented any part of the 11th district in Congress,” Malinowski said. “These are not just sister districts, but overlapping districts.”
Three other prominent Democrats have launched bids for Sherrill’s seat: Passaic County Commissioner John Bartlett, former Obama administration official Cammie Croft, Morris Township Committeeman Jeff Grayzel, and Essex County Commissioner Brendan Gill. A handful of others are considering joining the race.
Bartlett, an election lawyer, launched his campaign on Wednesday, just one day after Sherrill’s win. He plans to run on a platform of affordability, which Sherrill leaned on heavily in her gubernatorial campaign.
“I’m so proud of all the work we did here in North Jersey to make [Sherrill’s] victory possible, and I’m excited to see her deliver for our state,” Bartlett said in a campaign announcement. “But this also means her House seat will soon be open in a special election. It’s a swing district that Democrats must hold if we want a chance to take back Congress from the Republicans in 2026.”
Gill announced his intention to run for the seat on Thursday afternoon, saying he has a list of endorsements from Essex County circles. His campaign announcement said he is the “leading Democratic contender in the race for the 11th District.” Whether or not that’s true, he does benefit from chairing his party’s local Committee in Montclair, Sherrill’s hometown of 40,000 residents, which serves as a liberal stronghold for the 11th District.
Grayzel announced in August that he planned to run for Sherrill’s seat if she won. He, too, launched his bid on Wednesday.
“Our democracy is being shredded before our eyes, and we need to fight back,” Grayzel said in his campaign announcement.
He’s the first Democrat to serve on Morris Township’s governing panel since the 1970s, winning the seat in 2018. He was later elected the township’s first Democratic mayor in 2019.
Croft, a Montclair resident, launched her campaign to succeed Sherrill in September, before it was known if a special election would be necessary. She worked on former President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign and then worked as his deputy new media director and communications strategist for the Department of Energy.
She has a personal fight behind her campaign launch, as funds for her nonprofit organization, Rewiring America, were frozen by the Trump administration, forcing the organization to downsize. She said her priority in Congress would be lowering costs and opposing Trump policies.
“We need to stop Trump and stop the corruption where the ultra-rich are just making themselves richer on our backs,” she told the New Jersey Globe. “At the congressional level, one of the first things we need to do is reverse Trump’s cuts to Medicaid. We also need to reinstate the investments in clean energy that are going to reduce energy demand while also increasing energy supply.”
One Republican, Randolph Mayor Joe Hathaway, launched a campaign at the beginning of October.
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“I’ve lived my whole life here in North Jersey, and I know that families are working harder than ever to make ends meet,” Hathaway said while announcing his campaign. “In Randolph, I’ve focused on keeping taxes in check, strengthening public safety, and helping neighbors in need. Washington doesn’t need more politicians chasing headlines and profiting off of the people that elected them.”
But he will have an uphill battle to win the general election, given Sherrill’s margins in 2024 and the fact that former Vice President Kamala Harris won the district by 11 points last year.