Middlesex County Republicans picked Scott Fegler, a wholesale cheese, charcuterie, deli meat, grocery, and seafood products importer, to take on Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-Long Branch) in New Jersey’s 6th district.
Fegler defeated perennial candidate Gregg Mele by a 3-1 margin, 58-16.
The 35-year-old Highlands resident was born eighteen days before Pallone won the Democratic nomination for his first term in Congress in 1988.
He also has the organization line in Monmouth, where he was unopposed at the February 29 GOP convention.
Mele is making his sixth bid for public office.
He entered the Senate race in March 2023 but made no impact. He received no votes at the Hunterdon GOP convention and won just 7% in Union County.
He was an independent candidate for Congress in 2018 in New Jersey’s 7th district, running under the “Freedom” banner. He finished last in a field of four candidates, training Democrat Tom Malinowski by 164,689 votes and received 0.7%.
The following year, he became the Libertarian candidate for mayor of Bridgewater. He received 250 votes (2%) against Republican Matt Moench (57%) and Democrat Jeffrey Brookner (41%).
Mele won the Libertarian nomination for governor in 2021 and finished fourth in a field of five candidates with 0.3%; he trailed Gov. Phil Murphy by 1,331,703 votes.
In 2022, Mele sought the Republican nomination for Congress in the 6th district but was tossed off the ballot after he failed to meet the 200-signature threshold on his nominating petitions. Click HERE to read Mele’s New Jersey Globe Op-Ed explaining why.
Pallone was re-elected in 2022 with 57.5% of the vote against Monmouth County Commissioner Sue Kiley.
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