Voters in New Jersey gave incumbents another shot at keeping their seats.
Incumbent Democratic Reps. Donald Norcross, Andy Kim, Donald Payne Jr., and Tom Malinowski have prevailed in their primaries. The same was true for Republican incumbent Reps. Jeff Van Drew and Chris Smith.
GOP primaries still haven't been called in Districts 5 and 11.
The races and the stakes
New Jersey has 12 congressional districts — the current makeup of its US House caucus is 10 Democrats and two Republicans. The GOP is trying to change that ratio come November.
Of the 12 House races in New Jersey, only half of the incumbents were facing primary challengers.
Norcross defeated challenger Mario DeSantis, a public school teacher, and will face Republican Claire Gustafson in November.
Kim defeated progressive challenger Reuven Hendler and will face Republican businessman Bob Healy in November. Payne defeated two primary challengers and will face Republican David Pinckney in November.
Malinowski also prevailed in his primary, despite media coverage regarding his failure to disclosure his stock trades. He defeated Roger Bacon, who worked as a production mechanic technician and a realtor.
In November, he'll face Republican Thomas Kearn.
Van Drew will face off against Democrat Tim Alexander.
Unlike the other congressional districts in the state, the 8th Congressional District had no incumbent and will almost assuredly go Democratic come November. There were three Democratic candidates vying for the seat: Ane Roseborough-Eberhard, David Ocampo Grajales, and Robert Menendez Jr., the son of New Jersey's senior US Sen. Bob Menendez.
Mendendez Jr. ultimately prevailed — he had got much of the party's backing, including Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy. In November he'll face Republican Marcos Arroyo.
Republican Susan Kiley, a county commissioner, defeated two primary challengers and in November will face Democratic Rep. Frank Pallone — who ran unchallenged on Tuesday.
What the experts said
According to Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics, there were no "toss-ups" in New Jersey's 2022 congressional races. The prognosticators classified the races in the 2nd and 4th Congressional Districts as "safe R," the race in the 7th Congressional District as "leans R," and the remaining races as "likely D" or "safe D."
