TRENTON, N.J. (CN) - Tom Malinowski, who previously served two terms in Congress in another district, fought through a crowded field and a barrage of negative ads to handily win the Democratic primary for New Jersey's 11th Congressional District.
The former U.S. representative was the name to beat during the truncated campaign, which featured 10 other Democrats seeking to succeed Mikie Sherrill, who last year gave up her seat following her gubernatorial win last fall.
Malinowski was also the sole target of a blitz of negative advertisements over his failure to properly disclose stock trades while in Congress. Nearly all of the negative campaigns focused on Malinowski's former tenure representing the 7th Congressional District.
After polls closed at 8 p.m. on Thursday, votes were quickly tallied to show Malinowski with about 31% of the total vote, adding to the tens of thousands of mail-in votes already counted, most of which had already gone Malinowski's way. By 8:30 p.m., several media outlets had declared Malinowski the winner.
Coming in second was progressive Analilia Mejia, an activist who has the backing of former boss Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Among the other candidates were former Lieutenant Governor Tahesha Way, who ran on successfully beating Trump and the GOP in court over voter registration records and mail-in ballots.
Essex County Commissioner Brendan Gill had support from former New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, local labor unions and the Essex County Democratic Committee. Gill, whose wife is Colombian, has also made immigration a major hallmark of his campaign, saying Trump's crackdown on immigrants is "not abstract" for his family.
Among the other Democrats in the crowded field were: Passaic County Commissioner John Bartlett, who previously ran for the seat in 2018; businessman and veteran Zachary Beecher; attorney and comedian Jean-Louis Cauvin; former Obama administration staffer Cammie Croft; Morris Township Committeeman Jeff Grayzel; Chatham Councilman Justin Strickland; and activist Anna Lee Williams.
Without such competition, Republican Joe Hathaway nabbed his party's nomination uncontested and will face off against Malinowski on April 16.
Hathaway, who currently serves as Randolph Township's mayor, announced his candidacy for the seat in October 2025 before Sherrill even won the governor's race. In recent weeks, he has taken to local radio, saying he is happy to have run opposed and hoping the April primary staves off talk of a blue wave come November.
For more than three decades, the 11th Congressional District - comprised of slivers of Essex, Morris and Passaic counties-was considered a "red" district. In 2018, Sherrill flipped NJ-11 blue when she handily beat opponent Jay Webber 57% to 42%. Her reelection in 2020 was much tighter, though after redistricting in 2022, Sherrill's margins of victory again widened, as NJ-11 is more reliably blue.
Fundraising was particularly high in the race, even drawing national donors. Malinowski had led the pack with $1.1 million, with Gill in a close second with $808,000, according to the most recent filings with the Federal Election Committee filed mid-January.
While not much was done in late 2025, in recent weeks, Democratic voters in the district have been bombarded with fliers, text messages and phone calls from volunteers electioneering for the top candidates.
National groups also weighed in on the race, spending more than $4 million in the race. Among them was the United Democracy Project, which poured about $1.8 million against Malinowski. The Democratic Lieutenant Governors Association also spent $1.6 million, according to filings, much of which went to support Way.
Source: Courthouse News Service
