New Jersey voters pick Democratic nominee in special 11th district primary

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Voters in northern New Jersey will vote Thursday in a special congressional primary to select nominees to replace Mikie Sherrill in the U.S. House, after she became governor, according to the Associated Press. The AP said the Republican primary is uncontested, leaving Democrats to decide who will challenge Joe Hathaway in the special general election on April 16.

The Democratic primary on the ballot features 11 candidates, AP reported, including Passaic County Commissioner John Bartlett; venture capitalist Zach Beecher; attorney and comedian J-L Cauvin; nonprofit executive Cammie Croft; Essex County Commissioner Brendan Gill; Morris Township Committeeman Jeff Grayzel; former U.S. Rep. Tom Malinowski; progressive organizer Analilia Mejia; Chatham Borough Councilman Justin Strickland; former Lt. Gov. Tahesha Way; and community activist Anna Lee Williams. AP said two additional candidates have dropped out, but their names will remain on the ballot.

AP reported that fundraising and outside spending have shaped the final stretch of the abbreviated campaign. Malinowski led the field in fundraising, but AP said he was also the target of a $1.6 million negative ad campaign by a super PAC affiliated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which AP said targeted Squad members in 2024. Meanwhile, AP said a super PAC affiliated with the Democratic Lieutenant Governors Association has spent about $1.5 million on behalf of Way.

Heading into the April special general election, AP said the eventual Democratic nominee would have a head start given recent voting in the district. AP reported that Sherrill won reelection in 2024 with about 57% of the vote, and that Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris carried the district with 53% at the top of the ballot. The AP also said the district could further narrow the 218-214 Republican majority in the House.

AP said more than half of the district’s 588 precincts are in Morris County, with about 39% in Essex County and 9% in Passaic County. Beecher, Grayzel, Strickland and Williams were described as from Morris County, while Cauvin, Croft, Gill and Mejia were listed as from Essex County; Way was said to hail from Passaic County. AP also said Malinowski lives outside the 11th Congressional District but previously represented a portion of Essex County until his 2022 loss to Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Kean.

AP also laid out voting and election-night expectations. Polls close at 8 p.m. ET, and registered party members may vote only in their own party’s primary, meaning Democrats cannot vote in the Republican primary and vice versa; AP said independent or unaffiliated voters may participate if they affiliate with a party at the polling place.

On turnout figures, AP said that as of Sunday there were about 602,000 registered voters in the district, including about 226,000 Democrats, about 165,000 Republicans and about 206,000 not affiliated with any party; AP said the remainder were registered with various minor parties. AP reported that about 52,000 votes were cast in the 2024 Democratic primary, compared with about 38,000 in 2022, and that early and absentee voting accounted for about 48% of the 2024 primary vote and about 47% in 2022.

AP said that more than 25,000 ballots from registered Democrats and about 5,400 ballots from registered Republicans had already been cast as of Monday, with an additional 29 ballots from unaffiliated voters. For the likely pace of counting, AP said that in the 2024 11th District Democratic primary it first reported results at 8:11 p.m. ET—about 11 minutes after polls closed—and that tabulation ended for the night at 11:18 p.m. ET with about 90% of total votes counted.

Finally, AP said early and absentee voting results are released in the first update of the night in New Jersey, before any Election Day results are released. AP also said there will be 70 days until the special general election in the district and 271 days until the 2026 midterm elections.

The AP said it does not project outcomes and will declare a winner only when it determines no scenario would allow trailing candidates to close the gap. AP said New Jersey does not have automatic recounts, but candidates and voters may request and pay for them, with the cost refunded if the outcome changes; AP also said it may declare a winner in a recount-eligible race if it can determine the lead is too large for a recount or legal challenge to change the outcome.