Gov. Phil Murphy on Friday issued a writ of election that sets a Feb. 5 primary and April 16 special election to fill the 11th District Congressional seat vacated by Mikie Sherrill, who has resigned from the House of Representatives prior to becoming New Jersey’s next governor.
Sherrill, a Democrat who defeated Republican Jack Ciattarelli by a 14-point margin in the gubernatorial race earlier this month, will be inaugurated as New Jersey’s 57th governor on Jan. 20. She resigned her congressional seat effective 11:59 p.m. Thursday night.
Murphy, a fellow Democrat, acted quickly to schedule the special congressional election both to ensure representation for the 11th District and because Sherrill's open seat reduces the Democrat margin even further in the narrowly divided U.S. House of Representatives, where Republicans hold a slim 219-213 edge.
New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District includes most of Morris County and portions of Essex and Passaic counties. The district’s voters elected Sherrill to Congress three times.
Republicans and Democrats who want to run in their party’s political primary on Feb. 5 to serve the remainder of Sherrill’s congressional term must file their nomination petitions by 4 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 1. State law requires partisan candidates for Congress to gather signatures of at least 500 voters on their nominating petitions to run in the primary.
Nearly a dozen Democrats have signaled their intention to run for the vacant seat, including Essex County Commissioner Brendan Gill, a political strategist who managed Murphy’s 2017 gubernatorial campaign; Lt. Gov. Tahesha Way of Wayne; and several current and former commissioners and mayors. Additionally, former Congressman Tom Malinowski, who lost his 7th District seat in 2022 after redistricting, has said he will move to the 11th District to run.
On the Republican side, Randolph Mayor Joe Hathaway is running for the GOP nomination.
Under the writ of election that Murphy signed Friday, there will be six days of in-person early voting before the Feb. 5 primary (Jan. 29 through Feb. 3). There will be nine days of in-person early voting for the special general election (April 6 through April 14).
