U.S. Army veteran Toby Anderson has dropped his bid to challenge Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-Montclair) in New Jersey’s 11th district, one week after he filed to compete for the organization line at the Morris County Republican convention.
The move leaves Joseph Belnome, a Belleville building inspector, unopposed to run as the organization candidate in Morris County. Morris made up 73.5% of the vote in the 2022 GOP House primary in NJ-11.
“I wish him well and hope to get his support. He’s an America First candidate like I am,” Belnome said. “He was always going to have my support if he won”
Belnome may face Raafat Barsoom in the GOP primary to take on Sherrill.
This would be Barsoom’s fourth bid for public office: he won 18% of the vote against State Sen. Teresa Ruiz (D-Newark) in 2013; 11% in the Republican primary for Congress in the 7th district against Rep. Leonard Lance (R-Clinton Township) in 2018; and 11% against Tom Kean, Jr. (R-Westfield) in NJ-7 two years ago.
Anderson sought the GOP congressional nomination in 2022, coming within five votes of tying Larry Casha for a chance to compete in a runoff with Morris County Commissioner Tayfun Selen. Selen won the organization line, but former Assistant Passaic County Prosecutor Paul DeGroot defeated him in the Republican primary, 39%-35%, with Anderson finishing third in the five-candidate race with 20%.
Belnome, a former union bricklayer, was the GOP candidate for State Senate in the 34th district last year; he won 24% against the winner, Democrat Britnee Timberlake (D-East Orange).
Sherrill, a former Navy helicopter pilot and federal prosecutor, flipped the 11th district seat in 2018 after frightening House Appropriations Committee Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-Harding) into retirement. She won her third term in 2022, defeating DeGroot by 19 percentage points.