New Jersey’s 10th congressional district officially has a new congresswoman.
Following her overwhelming special election win last week, Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-Newark) was sworn into the House today representing the 10th district, a majority-Black seat based in Newark and other parts of urban North Jersey. The seat had previously been held by the late Rep. Donald Payne Jr. (D-Newark), who died in April following a heart attack.
A member of the Payne family had represented the 10th district beginning in 1989, when Rep. Donald Payne Sr. (D-Newark) took office as New Jersey’s first Black congressman. The elder Payne died in 2012 and was succeeded by his son; McIver said that she hoped to live up to their examples.
“The city of Newark, my lifelong home, has produced fierce, unyielding leaders who have dedicated their lives and careers to the pursuit of justice,” McIver said in her opening address to her fellow House members. “My predecessor, Congressman Donald M. Payne Jr., embodied the vibrant spirit of our city and the people he faithfully served… As I stand before you tonight, I pay tribute to him.”
The 38-year-old McIver, until recently the city council president in Newark, was surrounded by the entire New Jersey congressional delegation as she was sworn in on the House floor; her family, as well as top supporters like Essex County Democratic Chair LeRoy Jones and Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, looked on from the House Gallery.
“While I walk in the footsteps of those who came before me, it is my hope to blaze new trails together on the march towards fully realizing the promise of our great American nation,” she said. “As I stand here tonight, I am filled with more optimism than ever before that we can accomplish so much together.”
Upon Payne’s death earlier this year, Gov. Phil Murphy scheduled a special election to succeed him with a July 16 primary – the real contest in the safely Democratic seat – and a September 18 general election. Eleven Democrats threw their hats in the ring, but McIver was favored from the outset due to her support from Baraka, Jones, and other local Democratic leaders, and she ended up winning the primary election with a convincing 47% of the vote (her closest competitor got just 14%).
The general election was even more of a blowout: McIver defeated Republican Carmen Bucco 81%-16%, carrying even ancestrally Republican suburbs like Essex Fells. That election has not yet been officially certified, but the state Division of Elections sent a letter to the U.S. House Clerk asserting that McIver was the winner; Bucco, too, said he had no issue with McIver taking office as soon as possible.
McIver’s ascension to the House makes history in a variety of ways: she’s the youngest congresswoman in New Jersey history, and the state’s second Black congresswoman after Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing). Between McIver, Watson Coleman, and Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-Montclair), New Jersey will also have three female representatives at once for the first time ever, a number that could grow to four or even five depending on the results of November’s elections.
McIver is the new most junior member of the House – she’s 432nd in seniority – but that will change soon, after new members elected in November begin taking office. (For now, McIver has taken Payne’s office on the first floor of the Cannon House Office Building, but she’ll have to relinquish it in a few months and will likely end up with a less desirable posting.)
As for committee assignments, McIver said that she will be “temporarily” assigned to the Small Business Committee and the Homeland Security Committee, the latter of which was previously one of Payne’s committees, though those assignments could change after the new Congress is sworn into office in January.
McIver joins the House just in time to vote on a flurry of legislation up for debate this week, most importantly a stopgap funding bill designed to avert a government shutdown. That was partly by design; Murphy ordered the most expedited special election schedule he could in order to give House Democrats, who are only a handful of seats away from the majority, as many reliable votes on-hand as possible.
McIver said that as she gets adjusted to her radically new reality, she’s working to make herself as ready as possible.
“We’ve had a long day of orientations, we’re grasping all of the information, and we’re working on making sure we have enough staff,” she told the New Jersey Globe. “We’re going back into district next week. The 10th has been without representation, and we want to make sure people know that we’re open for business – we’re open to support and serve the great people of the 10th congressional district.”