Rep. Chris Smith (R-Manchester), the longest-serving congressman in New Jersey history, has won re-election to a 23rd term in the 4th congressional district, the New Jersey Globe projects.
As of 1:27 a.m., Smith leads Democratic businessman Matt Jenkins by 37 points, 68% to 31%, in New Jersey’s most Republican-leaning congressional district.
Smith’s first election to Congress was something of an upset: in 1980, at the age of 27, he unseated long-serving Rep. Frank Thompson (D-Trenton) after Thompson was implicated in the Abscam corruption scandal. (Thompson was later convicted and served two years in prison.) Democrats were convinced Smith’s victory was a fluke and drew him an incredibly tough district for the 1982 race, but Smith prevailed again – and he’s won another 21 elections since then.
During his nearly 44 years in Congress – tied for the longest tenure of any sitting House member, though Rep. Hal Rogers (R-Kentucky) gets to be Dean of the House because his name comes earlier alphabetically – Smith has developed a reputation as a heavily policy-focused congressman, focusing in particular on veterans’ and human rights issues. Smith served as the chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee from 2001 to 2005, and currently chairs the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Global Health, Global Human Rights & International Organizations.
Along the way, Smith’s congressional district in New Jersey has slowly shifted far from its original boundaries. When Smith was first elected, he lived in Old Bridge and represented working-class cities like Trenton and Burlington; now, Smith lives in Manchester and represents the middle-class suburbs of Monmouth and Ocean Counties.
The shifting lines opened Smith up to a primary challenge in 2022, when pro-Trump podcaster Mike Crispi held Smith to a 58% to 37% victory. The relatively moderate Smith could potentially be vulnerable to another challenge in the future, though he easily dispatched a minor GOP opponent with 85% of the vote this year.
But since the district is now by far the most conservative of New Jersey’s 12 districts, Smith has little to worry about in general elections. Jenkins, who ran against Smith in 2022 and lost 67% to 31%, never attracted much attention to his campaign this year; with victory secured, Smith’s main concern now is whether Republicans can keep the House and he can retain his high-ranking perch on the Foreign Affairs Committee.