Political newcomer Shirley Maia-Cusick is dropping her bid for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate and will instead run for the open congressional seat in New Jersey’s 3rd district.
“I am bringing my fight to the heart of American democracy in the people’s house,” Maia-Cusick said. “New Jersey deserves members of Congress who will restore our faith in America’s institutions, the rule of law, and the American dream.”
A 62-year-old grandmother of a U.S. Marine, Maia-Cusick filed a campaign committee to take on three-term incumbent Bob Menendez in December 2022.
“As an immigrant from Brazil, a country that is no stranger to corruption, I watched in embarrassment as Bob Menendez stood accused of crimes against his oath to the Constitution and his constituents in New Jersey,” Maia-Cusick said. “Now, Bob Menendez’s days in the Senate are numbered, and I am proud of the work we did in exposing his misconduct, but he is only the tip of the iceberg of the political rot in Washington.”
Maia-Cusick will move from Hunterdon County to a new residence in Medford to flip the seat held since 2019 by Andy Kim (D-Moorestown). One day after Menendez was indicted on federal bribery and conspiracy charges, Kim announced that he would give up his House seat to challenge Menendez in the Democratic primary.
Maia-Cusick is the first notable Republican to join the race to succeed Kim; Assembly Majority Whip Carol Murphy (D-Mount Laurel) announced her bid for the Democratic nomination on Wednesday.
“The only thing worse than a fiscal deficit is a leadership deficit,” Maia-Cusick said. “We need change in Congress, and I intend to bring it.”
An immigration consultant, Maia-Cusick has pledged to self-fund her House race.
By the end of the second quarter, her Senate campaign had raised nearly $200,000 – most of it her own money – and scored endorsements from Gloucester County GOP Chair Jacci Vigilante and two 2022 congressional candidates, Darius Mayfield and Billy Prempeh.
The front-runner status in the Senate race belongs to Mendham Mayor Christine Serrano Glassner, a former Bush administration official with strong ties to former President Donald Trump. She’s already won endorsements from Rep. Tom Kean, Jr. (R-Westfield) and most of the Republican establishment in her home county of Morris.
But that could change quickly if Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-Dennis), who has been exploring a U.S. Senate run, decides to enter the race.
The only other Republican currently running for NJ-3 is Greg Sobocinski, who ran as a conservative independent in 2022 and got 0.4% of the vote. The district was once highly competitive, but became much more Democratic after the last round of redistricting removed staunchly Republican Ocean County from the district.
Joe Biden won 56.4% in the current 3rd in 2020, and Kim held the seat last year with 55.5% against self-funder Bob Healey, although Gov. Phil Murphy only carried the seat by a 50.5%-48.9% margin against Republican Jack Ciattarelli in the 2021 gubernatorial race.
Kim narrowly ousted two-term Rep. Tom MacArthur (R-Toms River) in the 2018 Democratic wave election by one percentage point and then held the seat in 2020 while Trump was carrying the district.
Democrats won the seat in 2008 when State Sen. John Adler (D-Cherry Hill) flipped the district following the twelve-term Rep. Jim Saxton’s (R-Mount Holly) retirement. Adler lost to Jon Runyan, an ex-NFL star who played for the Philadelphia Eagles, two years later.
MacArthur won the seat in 2014 after Runyan decided four years in Washington were enough.
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