Credit: (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis)

Gov. Phil Murphy moved swiftly to start the process for replacing Mikie Sherrill in New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District, designating April 16 as the date for a special election.

Sherrill, a Democrat who won the race to replace Murphy by more than 14 points, resigned the seat she has held since 2019 on Thursday. Murphy issued the required writ of election on Friday for voters to fill the vacancy in the 11th District, which encompasses parts of Essex, Morris and Passaic counties.

Under that order, candidates seeking to run in a special primary to be held Feb. 5 must file nominating petitions with at least 500 signatures by Dec. 1. The field so far includes 11 declared Democrats who have filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission and one Republican.

The winners of the special primary and any independent candidates will then compete in a special general election on April 16. Independent candidates will need 250 signatures on nominating petitions and must file those by Feb. 5.

Mail-in balloting and early voting periods will be available for both elections. All of the nearly 600,000 registered voters in the district will be able to cast ballots.

The election schedule means Republicans in the House will now have a six-vote margin for the next five months. The GOP currently holds 219 seats and the Democrats 213, with three vacancies, including Sherrill’s.

There’s no way to speed up the process to fill Sherrill’s seat, as the timing of the elections to fill a House vacancy is prescribed by state law. Murphy did what he could to advance the process by issuing the election order as soon as he did.

Once considered a safe Republican district, it shifted for Democrats when Sherrill won a decisive victory in the 2018 blue wave, defeating state Assemblyman Jay Webber (R-Morris) after incumbent Republican Rodney Frelinghuysen retired that year. Sherrill was one of four Democrats to flip districts that year, though within his first year representing South Jersey’s 2nd District Rep. Jeff Van Drew changed parties to become a Republican. Now a U.S. senator, Andy Kim first won election to the House that year as well.

The fourth Democrat to win in 2018 was Tom Malinowksi, one of the 11 Democrats now running to replace Sherrill. Malinowski knocked out Republican incumbent Leonard Lance in the 7th District but lost reelection in 2022 to current Rep. Tom Kean Jr., a Republican, after redistricting made the 7th more Republican. Malinowski does not live in the district now but has said he will move there before the primary. His former district included two towns now in Sherrill’s district.

Another big name in the race is longtime Essex County Commissioner Brendan Gill, whose wife is state Assemblywoman Alixon Collazos-Gill. Gill managed Murphy’s campaign in 2017 and has received Murphy’s endorsement in this election.

Congressional openings are relatively rare and with New Jersey no longer using a party line ballot in primaries, large numbers of candidates have been eager to try to win.

A number of other current and former public officials also are in the race: Passaic County Commissioner John Bartlett, Chatham Councilman Justin Strickland and former mayors Dean Dafis of Maplewood and Jeff Grayzel of Morris Township. Rounding out the field are Zach Beecher, a former Army paratrooper and venture capitalist; social activist Anna Lee Williams; Marc Chaaban, who once interned for Sherrill; Cammie Croft, who served in the Obama administration; and Kennedy Pivnick, a legal assistant and recent law school graduate.

At least two other Democrats may be running. News reports indicated Lt. Gov. Tahesha Way, who also serves as secretary of state and is a former Passaic County commissioner, will also enter the race but she has yet to declare. And earlier this week, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka announced that progressive activist Analilia Mejia, who formerly headed the New Jersey Working Families Party and was the national political director for U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders 2020 presidential campaign, will also run.

Randolph Mayor Joe Hathaway is the only Republican who has filed.

Several candidates did not wait for Murphy’s announcement and already have been running campaign ads. Though being conducted over a short time period, the race is likely to get expensive given the presence of a number of well-connected candidates. Five candidates who jumped into the race early already have raised close to $550,000, according to filings with the FEC.

Voter registration skews Democratic with nearly 38% to 28% Republicans and most of the rest unaffiliated.

This is the third time in a year that New Jersey has had a congressional vacancy and the second time Murphy has had to order a special election. Last year, Donald Payne Jr. and Bill Pascrell, both Democrats, died in office. Democrat LaMonica McIver won special elections to fill Payne’s seat temporarily and went on to win the seat in the 10th District, southeast of Sherrill’s. Pascrell died too late to be replaced in a special election and Democrat Nellie Pou won his seat in the 9th District, northeast of Sherrill’s, in the 2024 general election.