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.