Former Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-Ringoes) appears to be preparing for a political comeback – in a district that neighbors the one he used to represent in Congress.
Malinowski, who represented New Jersey’s 7th congressional district from 2019 until 2023, filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission tonight to run for the 11th district, which is currently held by Democratic gubernatorial nominee Mikie Sherrill. If Sherrill wins the governorship on Tuesday, it will trigger a special election for her seat.
Malinowski did not immediately respond to a request for comment. He had previously said in June that “of course” he would be interested in running to succeed Sherrill if she were to be elected governor.
A New Jersey native and a former State Department official in the Obama White House, Malinowski first entered the political scene in 2018, when he unseated Rep. Leonard Lance (R-Clinton) in the 7th district. He won re-election in 2020, but a new Democratic-drawn congressional map adopted the next year made his district much redder in order to shore up neighboring districts (including Sherrill’s), and he lost re-election in 2022 to now-Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-Westfield).
Malinowski didn’t leave the political world, however, and was elected chairman of the Hunterdon County Democrats in 2024. There was some speculation that he might aim for a rematch against Kean, but it became increasingly clear over the last year that he was more interested in making a run to succeed Sherrill in the 11th district.
The two seats are demographically similar in some ways: both are suburban and generally affluent, though the 11th district is more explicitly North Jersey-based (it includes parts of Morris, Essex, and Passaic Counties), while the 7th district has more rural and exurban territory (it stretches across Union, Somerset, Morris, Hunterdon, Warren, and Sussex Counties).
Two of the towns currently in the 11th district, Millburn and Dover, were in the 7th district during Malinowski’s tenure. Malinowski’s current home in Hunterdon County is not particularly close to the 11th district’s boundaries, but his new FEC filing lists a PO Box in Millburn as his campaign address.
Plenty of other Democrats are likely to be interested in running for Sherrill’s district if she wins the governorship. Two of them, Morris Township Committeeman and former Mayor Jeff Grayzel and Obama administration alum Cammie Croft, are already running (though they say they wouldn’t run against Sherrill if she loses), and lots more are waiting in the wings until the gubernatorial results are finalized.
