Credit: (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)WASHINGTON — When a seat in the House of Representatives opens, an election must be held to fill it, as the U.S. Constitution requires.
When the vacancy happens relatively early in a House term, the governor of the state in question will call for a special election and voters pick a new member of Congress to fill the remainder of the expiring term.
That’s how it works in most states, New Jersey included.
But the bruising politics of Republican-dominated Washington where the party holds the White House and majorities in both chambers of Congress, and one vote can pass or torpedo a bill, will complicate the process to fill the seat held by Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-11th) if she becomes New Jersey’s next governor.
Republicans are in the midst of moving a multitrillion-dollar tax package that would cut social programs, like food benefits and Medicaid, and other significant votes on spending bills and raising the debt ceiling loom.
More on the options if Sherrill wins November election
The logistics of quitting Congress
Margins are tight in particular in the House, where Republicans have largely stuck together with their 220-212 majority, but where one lawmaker’s presence can make a difference, as the absence of Rep. Donald Norcross (D-1st) showed during a key April vote.
Outcomes of big House votes this Congress might have been different if three Democrats in the chamber — one from Arizona, another from Texas and a third from Virginia — had not died this year in office.
Sherrill on Tuesday won her party’s nomination for governor, emerging from a field of six Democrats. She will face Republican Jack Ciattarelli in a November general election.
If Sherrill wins that campaign, she will have to resign her House seat, triggering a process to elect someone else to represent New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District in Congress.
NJ election law
When she resigns would determine what happens next.
State law provides directions for the governor to call for a special election for an open House seat with a “writ of election” — a proclamation with election details.
This is what Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, did after the death of the late congressman Donald Payne Jr. in the spring of 2024.
Under state law, a special primary election can then be held between 70 and 76 days later, followed by a special general election a minimum of 64 days and a maximum of 70 days after that.
That process brought Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-10th) last September, before she won election to her current term in November.
“I was elected to represent New Jersey’s 11th District, I’ve been very effective delivering for families, and I intend to continue serving the people through this election,” Sherrill said in a statement to NJ Spotlight News when asked about potential resignation plans.
Credit: (House Television via AP)Former Rep. Bill Pascrell, a Democrat from Paterson, died too close to the general election for his seat to be filled until a new Congress was sworn in this January.
It’s possible a similar scenario could play out next year if Sherrill wins and doesn’t resign promptly, making it possible her seat could sit vacant for most of 2026.
Change NJ election law?
State Sen. Andrew Zwicker (D-Middlesex) introduced legislation in May to accelerate the process for filling an open House seat. It would require the governor to start the special election process within 10 days of a vacancy, faster than current law mandates.
Sherrill’s term expires in January 2027, when the winner of the 2026 general election for her seat would be sworn in.
First elected in the 2018 midterms, Sherrill, a former military helicopter pilot and prosecutor, grew close with a circle of fellow Democratic women with national security backgrounds who swept into office in a wave election in response to Trump’s first term.
One of them, former Virginia congresswoman Abigail Spanberger, is also running for governor. The primary election in that state is next week.
The two women were roommates when Spanberger, a former Central Intelligence Agency officer, was in Congress.
