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Eleven candidates are running in Thursday’s Democratic Party primary in New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District.
The seat was left vacant after now New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill stepped down after winning November’s gubernatorial election in the Garden State.
The winner of the Democratic primary will face off with Randolph Mayor Joe Hathaway, the only Republican to file for the special election, which will be held on April 16.
The special election in a district that tilts towards the Democrats comes as Republicans cling to a razor-thin 218-214 majority in the House of Representatives.
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But the GOP may land a reinforcement before the general election for the open seat in New Jersey is held.
That’s because a special election is scheduled on March 10 in Georgia’s solidly right 14th Congressional District, in the race to succeed former GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. The MAGA firebrand and one-time top Trump House ally a month ago stepped down from Congress a year before her term ended.
A whopping 22 candidates, including 17 Republicans, are running in the Georgia showdown.
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According to Georgia state law, all the candidates will run on the same ballot. If no contender tops 50% of the vote, a runoff election between the top two finishers will take place on April 7.
Greene won re-election in 2024 to the seat by nearly 30 points and Trump carried the district, which is located in northwest Georgia, by 37 points.
While there’s a very crowded field in Thursday’s Democratic congressional primary in New Jersey, only a handful of the candidates have a possible shot at winning the nomination.
Among the frontrunners are former Rep. Tom Malinowski, an assistant Secretary of State in former President Barack Obama’s administration who represented the neighboring 7th Congressional District from 2018 to 2022 before being defeated by now-GOP Rep. Thomas Kean Jr., and Essex County Commissioner Brendan Gill.
Also in contention are former Lt. Gov. Tahesha Way, John Bartlett, a Passaic County commissioner, and Analilia Mejia, a progressive organizer who is running as an outsider and is backed by progressive champions Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York. Sanders headlined a virtual rally for Mejia on the eve of the primary.
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The suburban district in northern New Jersey leans to the left, with Sherrill winning re-election in 2024 by 15 points, the same margin by which she carried the district in November’s gubernatorial showdown.
But then-Vice President Kamala Harris won the district by just eight points in the 2024 presidential election, giving the GOP some hopes of possibly flipping the seat.
There’s one more vacant seat in Congress, in California’s 1st Congressional District, following the recent unexpected death of Republican Rep. Doug LaMalfa.
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A primary in the race to fill LaMalfa’s seat will be held on June 2, which is primary day in California. And the special general election will be held on Aug. 4.
The district, in northeastern California, is solidly Republican.
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