Morris County Democrats have voted to endorse former 7th district Rep. Tom Malinowski in the fast-approaching special Democratic primary election for New Jersey’s 11th congressional district, a key endorsement for a man who once represented parts of Morris County in Congress and now hopes to do so again.
The convention was conducted using ranked-choice voting, and Malinowski won on the ninth round of balloting with 235 votes (53%); finishing in second and third place were Essex County Commissioner Brendan Gill with 131 votes (29%) and Bernie Sanders 2020 national political director Analilia Mejia with 80 votes (18%).
In the first round, before any candidates were eliminated as part of the ranked-choice process, Malinowski received 188 votes (41%) to Gill’s 110 (24%), meaning that Malinowski would have won the convention with a solid plurality even if ranked-choice voting was not used.
Coming far behind the top two finishers were Mejia with 36 votes, Chatham Borough Councilman Justin Strickland with 31 votes, Lieutenant Gov. Tahesha Way with 28 votes, and Passaic County Commissioner John Bartlett with 22 votes. Earning only a handful of votes each were former Army paratrooper Zach Beecher (13 votes), activist Anna Lee Williams (8 votes), Maplewood Committeeman/former Mayor Dean Dafis (7 votes), former Obama administration official Cammie Croft (7 votes), Morris Township Committeeman/former Mayor Jeff Grayzel (6 votes), and attorney and comedian J-L Cauvin (5 votes); two voters abstained.
Voting began yesterday, after the candidates spoke to Morris Democratic delegates in-person at their convention in Randolph, and ended this afternoon. According to the county party, 463 out of 520 eligible delegates, or 89%, participated in the convention.
“Our members heard from an impressive field of candidates,” Morris Democratic Chairwoman Darcy Draeger said in a statement. “Ranked choice voting allowed us to select the person with the broadest support across our diverse membership. We are proud to endorse Tom Malinowski for this seat.”
The endorsement means that the 11th district’s three county parties have all chosen to go in different directions in the race to succeed Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill: Essex Democrats endorsed Gill at their virtual convention two weeks ago, while Passaic County Democratic leaders unilaterally decided to endorse the two Passaic County candidates in the race, Way and Bartlett.
Unlike in Essex and Passaic, though, Morris Democrats showed little favoritism towards their four home-county candidates; Strickland, Beecher, Williams, and Grayzel combined for only around 13% of the first-round vote, far below candidates from Essex and Passaic Counties. That’s reminiscent of 2018, when Mikie Sherrill won the county party’s endorsement – and, over the years that followed, earned local Democrats’ unwavering loyalty – despite being a Montclair resident.
During Malinowski’s prior two terms in the House, between his first victory in 2018 and his loss to now-Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-Westfield) in 2022, his 7th district covered the western third of Morris County. Only one Morris town he once represented, Dover, is now in the 11th district, but the former congressman still retains a loyal following among Democrats from across the county.
That was at the center of the pitch he made to Democratic committeemembers during yesterday’s convention: they can trust him, more than anyone else in the 11th district field, to hit the ground running and represent Morris County effectively the day he arrives in Washington.
“You have to decide who amongst us is best-prepared to meet the urgency of this moment,” he said. “Morris County voters, you know how I represented you. You know about the town halls, and the small-business walks, and the funding I got back to clean up Lake Hopatcong, and to protect communities from flooding, and to save a Head Start school in Dover.”
Malinowski also invoked the name of another popular figure in Morris Democratic politics: Senator Andy Kim, who during his 2024 Senate run won the county party’s endorsement with 85% of the vote. Malinowski was one of the few prominent New Jersey Democrats to endorse Kim’s Senate campaign when doing so meant bucking the state party establishment, and Kim, in turn, has endorsed Malinowski’s comeback effort in the 11th district.
Prior to the convention vote, a screening committee of nine Morris Democratic leaders had appraised every candidate via a series of interviews and questionnaires, giving each one a score based on their preparedness and understanding of Morris issues. Malinowski was one of four contenders who received the committee’s “strong endorsement,” though his score was lower than that of two of his competitors, Gill and Way.
While Essex and Passaic Democrats’ endorsements will appear on the ballots themselves,, Malinowski’s victory in Morris County won’t come with the use of the party’s official ballot slogan, since it’s already too late to change anything on the ballot. He’ll appear on the ballot with the same slogan in all three counties: “No Kings, Crooks, or Cowards.”
Given that there won’t be any other offices up on February 5, though, the benefits of the party slogan are probably scant. In the post-county line era, each county party will have to work to make its own endorsement count; next year’s 11th district primary will be an early test of how good the district’s Democratic organizations are at doing so.
Now that all three county party endorsements have been awarded, the campaign for the 11th district can shift more firmly into the hands of voters themselves, who will be able to weigh in on the race shockingly soon.
Vote-by-mail ballots will start being mailed out on December 22, just one week from today, ahead of the February 5 primary. The general election, in which the winner of the Democratic primary will face presumptive Republican nominee Joe Hathaway, will arrive on April 16.
