Rachel Peace earns NJ-4 Dem nod against Chris Smith

Rachel Peace has won the Democratic nomination for New Jersey’s 4th congressional district, the New Jersey Globe projects, sending her to the general election against long-serving Rep. Chris Smith (R-Manchester) in the state’s reddest House seat.

As of 12:09 a.m. and with nearly all of the vote reported, Peace leads union electrician John Blake 73% to 27%.

Peace, a single mom and small businesswoman, became prominent in Jersey Shore activist circles thanks to her advocacy against 2025’s Big Beautiful Bill, which she said gutted Medicaid coverage for people like her and her son. Upon launching her 4th district campaign, Peace quickly found supporters among local Democrats, winning party conventions in both Monmouth and Ocean Counties.

Four other Democrats also expressed interest in the seat, but three of them – Keith Doll, Peter Linardakis, and Julie Flynn – either dropped out before filing day or didn’t gather enough signatures to make the ballot. Blake forged ahead with his campaign, but he, too, nearly failed to make the ballot after facing a signature challenge.

Smith, for his part, is seeking a 24th term in Congress, and he’s likely to get it in a district that regularly votes for Republicans by 30 points or more. (When Smith first flipped the 4th district in 1980, it looked very different from its current incarnation, but he’s proved to be a survivor regardless of district lines.)

If Smith were to face a tough battle for re-election, it would likely come in a Republican primary, but none developed this year. None of Smith’s notable intra-party critics decided to take him on, and the one challenger who did step up, a little-known former gubernatorial candidate named Rob Canfield, didn’t make the ballot and instead promised to return in 2028.