LaMonica McIver wins special primary for late NJ Rep. Donald Payne Jr.'s seat

Newark City Council President LaMonica McIver is all but certain to succeed the late Donald Payne Jr. in New Jersey’s 10th congressional district following her special primary win Tuesday night.

The 38-year-old Newark native prevailed over 10 other candidates that included former Irvington Councilmember Brittany Claybrooks, Linden Mayor Derek Armstead and Hudson County Commissioner Jerry Walker.

The district is one of the most Democratic in the country, so McIver is expected to have no trouble defeating Republican nominee Carmen Bucco, who ran unopposed, in the Sept. 18 special general election. But that election will only fill the House seat for a few months.

McIver is also the presumptive favorite to win a contest for the full two-year term. Payne died too late to remove his name from the ballot, so his name remained and was unopposed in the regular June primary. His replacement nominee for the full two-year term beginning in January, almost certainly McIver, will be formally chosen Thursday at a convention of Democratic committee members from the Essex, Hudson and Union county towns that make up the district in North Jersey.

Despite the crowded field that included some well-known names, it was an abbreviated low-profile, low-turnout contest in which McIver maintained the advantage the entire time. The Associated Press called the race for McIver, with 46 percent of votes, a half hour after polls closed at 8 p.m.

McIver, who counts Newark mayor Ras Baraka as a mentor, was elected in 2018. According to her City of Newark bio, she founded a nonprofit called G.A.L.S. “devoted to fostering female leaders of tomorrow” and has worked as an administrator, including a stint as personnel director for Montclair schools, from which she resigned after about a year.

Payne, a 12-year incumbent who succeeded his late father in the seat, suffered a heart attack in April and died weeks later. Essex County Democrats, who run one of the most formidable political machines in the state, quickly rallied around McIver to succeed him, including factions of the party that are sometimes at odds. McIver also had support of the Democratic Party in Union County, while the Hudson County Democratic Organization stayed neutral in the race.

Though the Democratic primary did not feature the “county line” that parties had used for decades following a judge’s decision in April to stay the practice, McIver’s party backing combined with the crowded field all aided her campaign.

“I don’t think it was a fair fight, but we did the best we could given the hand we were dealt,” Claybrooks, who worked for Democratic Senate nominee Andy Kim’s campaign before running for Payne’s seat, told POLITICO in a phone interview Monday.

The Democratic candidates for the seat did not raise much money. McIver, who as of the latest reports raised $90,000, led the field in fundraising.

Candidates didn’t express sharp differences at campaign forums. McIver earlier this month at an event hosted by the NAACP said that Congress needs to get “moving” on “action behind all of that talk” for reparations, according to TAPIntoNewark. She was the only Democratic candidate not to attend a different candidate forum a week later in Hudson County.