The primary election to fill a congressional seat vacated last week by New Jersey’s governor-elect, Mikie Sherrill, is 71 days away. And the field of candidates hoping to replace her — most of them Democrats, like Ms. Sherrill — is already packed.
Tom Malinowski, a former congressman who lost re-election in 2022 in a district adjacent to Ms. Sherrill’s, is running. Tahesha Way, New Jersey’s lieutenant governor, plans to formally announce a campaign in the coming days, an aide said Tuesday.
Cammie Croft, who worked in the White House under former President Barack Obama, got into the race even before Ms. Sherrill was elected governor early this month. And Analilia Mejia, a left-leaning activist endorsed on Tuesday by Senator Bernie Sanders, has tossed her hat into the crowded ring, too.
Elected leaders in Chatham, Maplewood and Morris Township are also among the dozen Democrats expected to compete for the nomination, as are county commissioners in Passaic and Essex Counties.
Joe Hathaway, the mayor of Randolph, N.J., is so far the only Republican to enter the race for the 11th Congressional District, which Ms. Sherrill had represented since 2019.
The heightened level of candidate interest stems both from the rarity of an open seat in the middle of a congressional cycle and from New Jersey’s recent changes to its primary ballot design, which weakened the power of local party leaders and helped to level the playing field for independent candidates.
“Now, people can actually run and have a fair shot at winning,” said Yael Bromberg, a professor at American University’s Washington College of Law, who was instrumental in bringing a lawsuit that toppled New Jersey’s unique primary election system, which for decades gave prominent ballot spots to candidates handpicked by political leaders.
“We’re seeing unprecedented political competition, increasing the marketplace of ideas,” Professor Bromberg added. “That’s a good thing.”
Last week, after Ms. Sherrill stepped down, Gov. Philip D. Murphy announced that the primary election for the seat would be held on Thursday, Feb. 5. Candidates have only until Monday to collect at least 500 signatures from registered voters in the district, a narrow window that includes Thanksgiving Day, intensifying the brisk interest in the contest.
According to the dates set by Mr. Murphy, a Democrat, the general election for candidates hoping to serve out the remainder of Ms. Sherrill’s two-year term will also be held on a Thursday: April 16. General elections are traditionally held on Tuesdays.
The district in northern New Jersey has leaned firmly Democratic since the congressional map was redrawn to reflect changes in the 2020 census. Ms. Sherrill won her last campaign for re-election by nearly 15 percentage points.
But Maureen O’Toole, a spokeswoman for the Republican Congressional Campaign Committee, said that the tight timeline set by the governor for the special election made it even harder for Republicans, and many lesser-known Democrats, to compete.
“This is the Democratic machine at its worst,” Ms. O’Toole said. “Insiders protected, outsiders boxed out and the public deliberately sidelined.”
State law mandates that special elections be held within a proscribed amount of time once a governor issues a writ of election after a congressional vacancy.
Mahen Gunaratna, a spokesman for Mr. Murphy, said that the general election had been set for April 16 to reduce conflicts with the religious holidays of Easter, which is April 5, and Passover, which ends April 9, during the nine days of early in-person voting.
Delaying the issuance of the writ would have been another way to avoid conflicts with the religious holidays, and would have given candidates from both parties more time to gear up to run. But Mr. Gunaratna said that the governor had wanted to minimize the time that residents of the district were without representation in Congress.
One Democratic candidate has already asked a judge to intervene, noting how difficult it is to obtain 500 voter signatures during a holiday week when many residents travel.
Last week, before issuing the writ, Mr. Murphy also endorsed Brendan Gill, an Essex County commissioner who is running with much of the same institutional support from the Democratic Party that helped Mr. Murphy win two terms in Trenton.
Ms. Sherrill has said that she does not intend to make an endorsement. But the governor’s support for Mr. Gill over Ms. Way, his lieutenant governor, has also set up a proxy battle of sorts in the race for the seat.
Senator Andy Kim, a first-term Democrat who won his seat with anti-establishment support from the left, has endorsed Mr. Malinowski, one of Mr. Gill’s most prominent opponents.
Mr. Malinowski, who served two terms in the Seventh Congressional District before losing to Representative Thomas Kean Jr., a Republican, has emphasized his immigrant roots and his experience in Washington, as a diplomat and in Congress. House members are not required to live in the region they represent, but Mr. Malinowski said he planned to move to South Orange, which is in the 11th District, next month.
The special election comes after Ms. Sherrill’s decisive, 14-point victory against Jack Ciattarelli, a Republican endorsed by President Trump. Democrats who are locked out of power in Washington have interpreted the results in New Jersey and in Virginia, where Abigail Spanberger, a Democrat, also won by a convincing margin, as positive indicators ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, which will determine the balance of power in Congress.
But the special election, which will take place months before the midterms, could also provide telling clues about the types of Democratic candidates voters are willing to support.
Ms. Sherrill, a former Navy helicopter pilot, and Ms. Spanberger, a former C.I.A. officer, ran as centrists and stressed their careers in national security.
Their victories coincided, however, with Zohran Mamdani’s meteoric rise in New York City. With promises of free buses and child care, Mr. Mamdani, a 34-year-old democratic socialist, captured the imagination of Democratic voters across the country in his successful campaign for mayor.
Ms. Mejia, the left-leaning organizer, said she was hoping to tap some of the same energy that fueled Mr. Mamdani’s stunning win as she competes for Ms. Sherrill’s seat.
She led the state’s Working Families alliance, a progressive organization, until 2019, when she stepped down to help run Mr. Sanders’s presidential campaign. She went on to help lead Popular Democracy, a national political group, and Mr. Sanders said in a written endorsement that her experience made her the best candidate in the race.
“At a moment when oligarchs and corporate interests continue to capture our government, we need true progressives to take our country back for working Americans,” Mr. Sanders said.
Tracey Tully is a reporter for The Times who covers New Jersey, where she has lived for more than 20 years.
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