Mikie Sherrill’s resignation in the U.S. House of Representatives is now effective, leaving New Jersey’s 11th district seat vacant for the first time since Republican Dean A. Gallo (R-Parsippany) died on November 6, 1994.
Sherrill filed her resignation letter on Tuesday, and it became effective at 11:59 PM tonight. She will become governor on January 20, 2026.
Gov. Phil Murphy is expected to issue a writ of special election on Friday morning to fill Sherrill’s seat. The primary is expected to be held either the last week of January or the first week of February.
Sherrill’s departure marks the sixth time in the last two years that a seat in the New Jersey congressional delegation was vacant; the first came after Rep. Donald Payne, Jr. (D-Newark) died on April 24, 2024.
Sherrill, a Montclair Democrat, flipped the seat in 2018 after 34 years of Republican control. The incumbent was Rodney Frelinghuysen, who was the powerful House Appropriations Committee chairman, and after he watched Sherrill raise $1.2 million in 2017, he weaseled his way into retirement.
For nearly ten years, the 11th district was represented by Republican Dean Gallo, a likable moderate who had served as a freeholder and Assembly minority leader before ousting eleven-term Rep. Joseph Minish (D-West Orange) in 1984 under a new map drawn by the courts that shifted the district from blue to red by a 12-point margin.
Gallo won a contentious primary in 1994 against future State Sen. Joseph Pennacchio (R-Montville), but withdrew from the race in August as he was losing his fight with prostate cancer. Republicans picked Frelinghuysen as their replacement candidate — that’s who Gallo wanted to succeed him. Gallo died two days before the general election, and the 11th district seat remained empty until Frelinghuysen took office on January 3, 1995.
Minish had served 22 years in the House before Gallo unseated him. He won the seat left vacant by Democrat Hugh Addonizio, who left Congress on July 1, 1962, after almost fourteen years, to become the mayor of Newark.
A second vacancy in 2024 occurred on August 20 when Bob Menendez resigned from the United States Senate following his conviction on federal corruption charges. Murphy appointed George Helmy, his former chief of staff, and he took office on September 9.
Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-Paterson) died on August 21, one day after Menendez left office. His seat remained vacant until January 3, 2025, when Nellie Pou (D-North Haledon) was sworn in after winning a two-year term to replace him. That brought the total number of vacancies of the fourteen-member delegation to three.
LaMonica McIver (D-Newark) was sworn in to replace Payne on September 23, 2024. Helmy resigned on December 8 so that Murphy could appoint the winner of the 2024 general election, Andy Kim (D-Moorestown), to the Senate. Kim resigned his third district House seat that day, so between his resignation and taking the Senate oath a few hours later, there were again three vacancies.
That was five vacancies in 228 days.
Sherrill becomes the third governor-elect to resign from Congress to take state office under the current State Constitution. Republican William Cahill, governor in 1969, and Democrat Jim Florio, elected in 1989, left Congress hours before their inaugurations.
Until the winner of the 2026 special election is seated, the Clerk of the House will run the 11th district congressional offices, with Sherrill’s staffers mostly staying on.
