In the race for Congress in New Jersey’s 3rd district, Rajesh Mohan, a cardiologist from Holmdel, won the Mercer County Republican organziation line with 32.5% of the vote, edging out two others by just one vote.
Mohan received 27 votes, with Shirley Maia-Cusick and Greg Sobocinski each receiving 26 votes. A third candidate, Michael Faccone, received one vote.
Christopher Telofski, a small businessman from Manalapan who competed in Monmouth County, was not nominated in Mercer.
They are competing for the House seat left open when Rep. Andy Kim (D-Moorestown) decided to run for the U.S. Senate.
Republicans are also backing Darius Mayfield in his bid for a rematch with Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing) in the 12th district.
Five Mercer County municipalities are in the 3rd district: East Windsor, Hamilton, Highstown, Lawrence, and Robbinsville. Mercer County made up 14.5% of the total votes cast in the 2022 Republican congressional primary.
Mohan won the Monmouth GOP convention and is the recommended candidate of the Burlington GOP screening committee. He is making his second bid for public office after running as an independent for Holmdel township committeeman in 2022. Maia-Cusick began the cycle as a candidate for U.S. Senate, but moved from Hunterdon County to Burlington last year to run for the House after Kim launched his bid for Bob Menendez’s Senate seat.
Sobocinski, a self-described America First candidate,mounted an independent campaign for Congress in 2022. He argued that both Kim and his Republican opponent, Bob Healey, were too liberal, and that only he would provide true conservative representation to the 3rd district. Sobocinski ultimately earned 1,116 votes, or 0.4%, as Kim was beating Healey 55%-44%.
Mohan, a cardiologist from Holmdel, won the Monmouth GOP convention and is the recommended candidate of the Burlington GOP screening committee.
Assemblyman Herbert Conaway, Jr. (D-Delran) has won Democratic conventions in Burlington, Monmouth and Mercer counties. He faces Assembly Majorit Whip Carol Murphy (D-Mount Laurel), civil rights attorney Joe Cohen, and seafood company owner Sarah Schoengood in the Democratic primary.
Kim won his third term two years ago by twelve percentage points after shedding heavily Republican Ocean County in redistricting. The seat is viewed as likely Democratic.
Sobocinski is a small business owner from Southampton.