New Jersey pastor, ex-real estate developer, and former GOP gubernatorial primary candidate Phil Rizzo says he wants to challenge Democrat Rep. Mikie Sherrill in 2022.
“I’m running for Congress because empowering New Jersey didn’t end with the Governor’s race. Now it means standing up to the federal government and radical, out-of-touch Leftist politicians and unelected bureaucrats trying to tell New Jerseyans how to live our lives,” Rizzo explained in a Thursday morning release announcing his candidacy. “It also means bringing appropriate federal accountability to New Jersey’s state government when it oversteps our Constitutional rights.”
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NJ-11 was in GOP hands for a long time until Sherrill won an open race in 2018.
The incumbent Democrat won reelection by 6.4-points in 2020. She might be in trouble this time around if present trends persist. Roughly half of NJ-11 voters hail from Morris County (with Passaic and Essex making up the rest), and Morris County swung 15.6 points in the GOP’s direction from 2020 to 2021.
Rizzo, running hard against abortion and COVID-19 mandates, finished a distant second in this year’s GOP gubernatorial primary to Jack Ciattarelli.
He’s joing a packed field. The prospective Republican primary pool already includes millennial screenwriter Hillery Brotschol, attorney Robert Kovic, realtor Patrick Quinn, Morris County Commissioner Tayfun Selen, ex-RNC staffer Tom Toomey, former Wall Streeter John Isemann, and veteran Morris GOP operative Larry Casha.
2020 nominee Rosemary Becchi is also believed to be weighing a second bid.
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