Kiley easily defeats Mehta in 6th district Republican primary

The New Jersey Globe projects that Monmouth County Commissioner Sue Kiley has won the Republican primary in the 6th congressional district and will take on Rep. Frank Pallone (D-Long Branch) this November. As of 10:52 p.m., Kiley had 57% of the vote to 2020 Senate nominee Rik Mehta’s 27%.

Kiley, who won re-election to the Monmouth County Board of Commissioners in a landslide last year, entered the race against Pallone in January and quickly established herself as the frontrunner. She won both county lines by large margins – including in Middlesex, where Mehta lives – and raised a modest amount of money with some help from self-funding.

Mehta, meanwhile, spent nearly a year running against Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-Ringoes) in the 7th district before switching to the 6th district at the beginning of this year. Despite his high-profile Senate bid in 2020, Mehta had trouble raising money, and his bid to become the anti-establishment alternative for Trump-oriented voters didn’t take off.

Also failing to catch on was Tom Toomey, a former Republican National Committee staffer who switched races last December after beginning the cycle in the 11th district.

While she may be victorious tonight, however Kiley is unlikely to win a seat in Congress. Pallone, who was uncontested in his own primary, has represented the strongly blue 6th district for nearly 34 years; even a huge Republican wave probably wouldn’t be enough to dislodge him.