Democratic voters in New Jersey will have their final chance on Thursday to cast ballots in a special congressional primary election to complete Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s term in the House after a raucous campaign that featured millions of dollars in spending by outside interest groups.
The winner will compete April 16 against the sole Republican in the race, Joe Hathaway, the mayor of Randolph, N.J., to serve out the remaining months of Ms. Sherrill’s term in the state’s 11th Congressional District.
Early voting began last week in the race, which has been fast-paced and unusual.
The names of 13 Democrats appear on the ballot, although two have stopped campaigning. The election is being held on a Thursday. And negative advertising, much of it funded by national groups, has dominated the debate, elevating what might have been an under-the-radar special election to a dramatic showdown between factions within the Democratic Party.
The race’s front-runners include Tom Malinowski, a former congressman; Analilia Mejia, a left-leaning organizer endorsed by Senator Bernie Sanders; Tahesha Way, New Jersey’s former lieutenant governor; and Brendan Gill, a political operative who ran former Gov. Philip D. Murphy’s first campaign.
In the final weeks of the campaign, records show a super PAC affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee spent $2.3 million on television and digital ads, phone calls and mailers to try to discredit Mr. Malinowski, who until 2023 represented a neighboring district in Congress.
Mr. Malinowski, a longtime supporter of Israel, has criticized the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, as a humanitarian crisis has engulfed Gaza in the years since Hamas’s deadly Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack on Israel. A spokesman for the PAC, United Democracy Project, has said that its opposition is tied to Mr. Malinowski’s unwillingness to rule out placing conditions on U.S. aid to Israel.
As the first House contest of 2026, the Democratic primary has offered a preview of campaign tactics that could be replicated this fall in midterm elections that will determine party control of Congress. The results are also likely to be seen as a barometer of voter preferences within a party that has struggled to find its footing since President Trump won a second term.
Ms. Way, who stepped down as lieutenant governor last month, has benefited from at least $1.3 million in ads paid for by the National Lieutenant Governors Association, which emphasize her willingness to stand up to Mr. Trump. Ms. Mejia, a former head of the state’s Working Families alliance, joined Mr. Sanders at a “Fighting Oligarchy” rally that drew thousands of young supporters.
Mr. Gill, a county commissioner in Essex County, one of the state’s Democratic strongholds, was endorsed by Mr. Murphy and an array of other longtime party leaders who once held significant sway in election outcomes. Mr. Malinowski, on the other hand, is backed by Senator Andy Kim of New Jersey, who was elected in 2024 after beating the state’s former first lady, Tammy Murphy, in a campaign that took direct aim at boss politics in a state notorious for political corruption.
The polls will be open on Thursday from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. for residents of the 11th Congressional District, which includes parts of Morris, Essex and Passaic Counties. As of Monday, more than 25,000 Democrats had already cast early ballots, according to The Associated Press.
But the sheer size of the field of Democrats is expected to lead to a splintered vote, particularly because all the candidates are raising and spending money and campaigning aggressively.
The other candidates in the race are John Bartlett, a Passaic County commissioner who first ran for the seat in 2018; Zach Beecher, an Army veteran who works as a venture capitalist; J-L Cauvin, a lawyer and stand-up comedian; Cammie Croft, a nonprofit executive endorsed by 27 colleagues she worked with in the Obama White House; Jeff Grayzel, the deputy mayor of Morris; Justin Strickland, an Army veteran and councilman in Chatham; and Anna Lee Williams, a former immigrant rights advocate who manages corporate social responsibility programs.
Mr. Beecher, 35, has raised the third highest amount of campaign funds, behind Mr. Malinowski and Mr. Gill. He was hopeful that voters recognize a need for younger candidates who come from outside the traditional political framework.
“It’s trying to get voters to see that going back to the well for the same types of candidates may produce similar results,” said Mr. Beecher, who said his service during the war in Iraq, where he worked in combat logistics, contributed to his desire to enter his first race for office.
The 11th Congressional District was redrawn after the 2020 census, making what was once a Republican-leaning seat far safer for Democrats.
Still, Maureen O’Toole, a spokeswoman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, said the crowded field of Democrats, who she said have “spent the past two months fighting among themselves and trying to out-liberal each other,” had opened a clear lane for Mr. Hathaway in April.
“Whoever wins will be wearing the progressive crown,” she 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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