Lisa McCormick ally will challenge Conaway in NJ-3 primary

Lisa McCormick, the shadowy perennial candidate who is waging her latest campaign this year against U.S. Senator Cory Booker, is recruiting other candidates to run on her statewide Democratic primary ticket.

Shawn Scott, a Marine Corps veteran and corrections officer from Cinnaminson, will run on McCormick’s “Democrats for Change” slate against Rep. Herb Conaway (D-Delran) in the 3rd congressional district. (Despite the shared name, the slate has nothing to do with Steve Fulop’s gubernatorial campaign slogan from last year, and McCormick used the same slogan in her 2018 Senate campaign.)

There could be more McCormick-aligned challengers still to come; Scott told the New Jersey Globe that he’s the only House candidate that he knows of so far, but that McCormick and her controversial partner James Devine are looking to add more.

For his own campaign, Scott said that he plans on running as a “progressive and aggressive politician,” criticizing President Donald Trump for his deportation policies, his attacks on the Federal Reserve, and his disparagement of Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl performance. Conaway, Scott said, has failed to sufficiently push back against Trump and advocate for the residents of the 3rd district.

“I think Mr. Conaway is a quiet leader,” Scott said. “Right now, in this day and age, we need a little more aggression to balance what President Trump brings to the table. Just from a fair assessment, I don’t think Mr. Conaway is that type of leader.”

Scott also criticized Conaway, who has represented the 3rd district for just over a year and previously served as Cinnaminson’s state assemblyman for decades, for not reaching out after his son was killed last year. Scott’s son, Brion Teel-Scott, was serving in the Air Force in Albuquerque when he was shot 16 times; the Air Force said in a statement that Teel-Scott was “fleeing an attempted detention,” but Scott disputes the official account of the incident.

It was his activism regarding his son, Scott said, that first linked him with McCormick and Devine; after hearing his story, they asked him to team up with them and run for office.

“When they asked me to join the ticket, I figured it would be a good idea,” he said. “I viewed her as a fighter. I figured I could join a team full of fighters.”

As a first-time candidate with sparse political connections, Scott will face an uphill battle against Conaway, who has made few enemies during his long career in politics. Scott will be competing against Conaway at tomorrow’s Mercer County Democratic convention, but he missed the deadline to do the same in Monmouth and Burlington Counties.

McCormick, too, is unlikely to unseat Booker, who is seeking a third full term this year. She became best known after her little-noticed challenge to scandal-tarred incumbent Bob Menendez drew 38% of the vote in 2018, but she followed that up with disastrous campaigns against Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing) in 2020 and Gov. Phil Murphy in 2021, the latter of which got McCormick thrown off the ballot and Devine indicted for fraudulent petitions.