Rep. Frank Pallone (D-Long Branch), who after 36 years in Congress has the third-longest House tenure in New Jersey history, has been re-elected to a 19th term, the New Jersey Globe projects.
As of 10:26 p.m., Pallone leads Republican businessman Scott Fegler 56% to 41% in the 6th congressional district, a Democratic-leaning seat that covers parts of the Jersey Shore in Monmouth County and a diverse swath of towns in Middlesex County.
Pallone’s rise to Congress came in 1988, when the then-state senator was elected to succeed his mentor, the late Rep. James Howard (D-Spring Lake Heights), who had died that year. His early campaigns were difficult ones, winning at one point with just 49% of the vote, but he’s won by double digits every cycle for the last 30 years.
During that time, he’s amassed substantial power in the U.S. House, winning a contest in 2014 to become the top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee against the wishes of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. After Democrats won control of the House in 2018, Pallone rose to become committee chairman, making him one of the most powerful Democrats in Congress, though he had to become ranking member once again in 2022 when Republicans retook power.
Fegler’s campaign against Pallone this year attracted little attention; the 6th district has been drawn for decades to be safely Democratic, and Fegler never raised enough money for his campaign to be seriously competitive. In 2022, Republicans recruited the strongest challenger they’ve had in years in Monmouth County Commissioner Sue Kiley (R-Hazlet) and they still came up well short, dampening any hopes of an upset in the future.
The battle Pallone really cares about this year is whether Democrats can flip enough seats to retake power in the House and give him the chairmanship of his committee back – and that’s a battle that’s out of his hands.