A very pro-Democrat map hasn’t discouraged a fairly large number of NJGOP congressional hopefuls from trying to ride a “red wave” this year.
It’s still changing; for example, NJ-03 lost one candidate this week (school board member Will Monk), and there’s a good chance NJ-03 is about to add another candidate. The state deadline for ballot access – filing your nominating petitions – isn’t until April 4th, but the contest for those all-important county lines starts earlier. By way of example, the Hunterdon GOP convention is scheduled for February 10th and letters of intent were already due on January 20th.
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Here’s the ***current*** list of candidates:
1st District (Camden and Big Chunks of Gloucester County)
Collingswood’s Claire Gustafson and Salem County’s Nick Magner are the GOP primary combatants for the chance to challenge Donald Norcross; Gustafson, who is probably the frontrunner, was the 2020 nominee.
2nd District (Most of Deep South Jersey)
Democrat-turned-Trump favorite Congressman Jeff Van Drew is the clear favorite running against John Barker (a U.S. Army veteran) and Scott Hitchner, Jr. (an Air Force veteran).
3rd District (Burlington County/Central Jersey)
Bob Healey Jr. of Viking Yacht – a former punk rocker – is presently running alone for the right to take on Democrat incumbent Andy Kim. If rumors are true, there’s a decent chance that could change before the filing deadline.
4th District (Northern Jersey Shore/Central Jersey)
Chris Smith entered Congress in 1981 and has almost no chance of losing his super-red redrawn district in a general election; his only potential stumbling block is a crowded primary featuring Mike Blasi (a realtor), David Burg (and attorney), Mike Crispi (a podcaster backed up by Roger Stone), Tricia Flanagan (Twitter activist and frequent candidate for high office), and Daniel Francisco (an Englishtown councilman and former Project Veritas operative). Smith has to be considered the frontrunner especially with a field this crowded notwithstand former President Trump’s call for his defeat.
5th District (Extreme North-Central Jersey)
Nick De Gregorio (millennial veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan), Frank Pallotta (financial industry vet and 2020 nominee), and Fred Schneiderman (a businessman who just retained the services of Kellyanne Conway) all want to take on Josh Gottheimer in a district that just got more blue but which Phil Murphy won by only 1-point in 2021. De Gregorio was likely a narrow favorite particularly after Pallotta lost western parts of NJ-05 where he ran strong in 2020, but the entry of Schneiderman makes the 3-way race a little less clear.
6th District (Central Jersey)
Monmouth County Commissioner Sue Kiley and pharmacist/lawyer Rik Mehta (the party’s 2020 nominee to challenge Cory Booker are in the hunt as are ex-RNC operative Thomas Toomey and 2021 Libertarian gubernatorial candidate Gregg Mele. The winner faces Frank Pallone whose district is still pretty darn blue but, in 2021, the new version of his district went to Murphy by only 7-points suggesting the potential for a competitive contest if that much-discussed “red wave” materializes.
7th District (Northwest-Central N.J.)
Tom Malinowski won reelection by only 4,000 votes in 2020 in a far better Democrat environment AND a bluer district. The man who got close (Tom Kean Jr.) just gave up his State Senate seat to take another shot at the prize. He’ll first need to get through seven other candidates:
Public works contractor Kevin Dorlon, Fredon Mayor John Flora, 20-something businessman John Isemann, Assemblyman Erik Peterson (R-23), 2021 GOP gubernatorial primary candidate Phil Rizzo, U.S. Navy veteran Sterlin Schwab, and salon owner Robert Trugman.
8th District (Newark, Jersey City)
Albio Sires is one of 25 Democrats retiring this year. One of two Republicans is set to challenge the son of U.S. Senator Bob Menendez (Robert J. Menendez): Plumber’s apprentice Ana Isabel Rivera and perennial candidate David Winkler.
9th District (Northeast Jersey)
Billy Prempeh (a veteran) and Patrick Quinn (a realtor) both want to take on Bill Pascrell. Is this the sleeper race of the year? Pascrell’s district is still blue but got a little less daunting (in part to make NJ-05 and 11 better for Democrats). If there’s a HUGE wave in November, don’t be completely shocked by the margin here.
10th District (Newark, Orange)
Democrat Donald Payne is the one Democrat currently facing no potential general election challenge from the GOP in his rock-solid blue district.
11th District (North-Central Jersey)
Assemblywoman Aura Dunn (R-25) is poised to join the race; if she does, the moderate Republican legislator (there are still a few of them left) will face a field consisting of seven other GOP hopefuls on her path to taking on Mikie Sherrill:
Military veteran Toby Anderson, Morris GOP State Committeeman Larry Casha, ex-assistant Passaic County Prosecutor Paul DeGroot, lawyer Larry Friscia, ex-Ridgefield Park Councilman Robert Kovic, entertainment industry screenwriter Hillery Brotschol, and Morris County Commissioner Tayfun Selen.
12th District (Central Jersey)
Republican Darius Mayfield is currently unopposed in his effort to unseat Bonnie Watson Coleman.
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