Assemblyman Herb Conaway (D-Delran) has won the Democratic primary for New Jersey’s 3rd congressional district, the New Jersey Globe projects, prevailing in a five-way race for the right to succeed Rep. Andy Kim (D-Moorestown) in Congress.
As of 12:39 a.m., Conaway is far ahead of the field with 50% of the vote, while Assemblywoman Carol Murphy (D-Mount Laurel) – Conaway’s seatmate in the legislature – is in second with 25%. Civil rights attorney Joe Cohn has 12%, businesswoman Sarah Schoengood has 10%, and teacher Brian Schkeeper has 3%.
Conaway will now go up against Republican Rajesh Mohan, a physician who won his own primary tonight against three opponents.
The 3rd district, which covers a mix of suburban territory in Burlington, Mercer, and Monmouth Counties, has been held for the last six years by Kim, who flipped an earlier version of the seat in 2018 from GOP control. When Kim announced last year he would run for U.S. Senate instead of for re-election, Conaway and Murphy emerged as the leading candidates to succeed him; Cohn, Schoengood, and Schkeeper, all political unknowns before this year, joined the race soon afterwards.
Thanks to his long tenure in the legislature – 26 years as of this January – it was Conaway who had the inside track for party support across the district. Conaway won all three county conventions, and none were close; at the convention in Burlington County, which makes up a majority of the district, the assemblyman beat Murphy 179 votes to 52.
But in March, a federal judge threw a wrench in the race by striking down the Democratic county line, meaning that Conaway’s party endorsements would no longer confer him with a favorable ballot position. Murphy and her fellow off-the-line challengers suddenly had new life breathed into their campaigns by the advent of office-block ballots.
By that point, though, Conaway had already established himself as the race’s frontrunner, a title that proved difficult to dislodge. Conaway retained his endorsements from many of the 3rd district’s most prominent Democrats, and he also handily outraised the field; as of May 15, he had raised just over $500,000, well ahead of Murphy’s $169,000 and Cohn’s $140,000.
Several outside groups also came in to solidify Conaway’s lead, with VoteVets, the With Honor Fund, and 314 Action combining for more than $600,000 in spending to boost Conaway, an Air Force veteran and physician. Murphy was likely hoping for a similar investment from EMILYs List, or perhaps from groups affiliated with South Jersey Democratic power broker George Norcross, but none came to her aid.
With the Democratic nomination under his belt, the 61-year-old Conaway is now one step closer to the congressional seat he’s long had his eye on. The assemblyman ran for the seat once before, in 2004, but lost to then-Rep. Jim Saxton (R-Mount Holly) in a 63%-35% landslide.
History’s not likely to repeat itself this year, given that the seat has become quite a bit more Democratic thanks both to redistricting and to the leftward shift of New Jersey’s suburbs. And if he does win, Conaway will make some history of his own as the first-ever Black member of Congress from South Jersey.
“I got into this race because, as a former captain in the Air Force, I took an oath to protect our constitution and rule of law,” Conaway said in a statement on his victory. “The same constitution that MAGA extremists want to shred to pieces. In Congress, I will stand up to fight for democracy, the rule of law, and our right to vote… Tonight we stand united in our belief that we must defeat MAGA extremists who pose a serious threat to all the freedoms we love and cherish.”