The race to replace Andy Kim: Nine people are running for the seat in the New Jersey primaries

Five New Jersey Democrats and four Republicans are running in primaries to replace U.S. Rep. Andy Kim in the U.S. House.

On the Democratic side, two New Jersey General Assembly members could have an advantage over a handful of political outsiders in the open seat race. In the Republican race, one candidate leads in fundraising while another has support from the GOP establishment.

The 3rd Congressional District includes almost all of Burlington County and parts of Mercer County, which lean Democratic, and parts of Republican-leaning Monmouth County. Democrats make up nearly 36% of voters in the district, and Republicans make up a little more than 26%. Unaffiliated voters outnumber both parties at nearly 37%, as of May.

Kim flipped the South Jersey district blue in a tight race in 2018, and it was redistricted in 2022 to include more Democratic areas. The three-term member of Congress has an easy path to the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate, but he has not endorsed a primary candidate to succeed him in the district.

Burlington County Democratic Assemblymembers Herb Conaway, the deputy speaker, and Carol Murphy, the majority whip, both 61, have the benefit of already representing district residents. Civil rights attorney Joe Cohn, business owner Sarah Schoengood, and teacher Brian Schkeeper are also running in the Democratic primary.

Conaway led the pack in fundraising as of March 31, raising nearly $360,000. That’s nearly three times as much as Cohn and Murphy — the next highest fund-raisers — who each raised more than $120,000, with Cohn raising slightly more than Murphy.

Additionally, Conaway has since garnered financial support from outside groups, 314 Action Fund, which works to elect scientists, and VoteVets, which supports veterans running for office, New Jersey Globe reported. Conaway served in the Air Force medical corps for four years.

Murphy has support from EMILY’s List, a group which works to elect women who support abortion rights.

Throughout the race, Conaway has taken jabs at Murphy for relying on identity politics by campaigning on potentially being the first woman to represent South Jersey in Congress. Murphy confronted him about it at a debate hosted by the New Jersey Globe, On New Jersey, and Rider University, and he responded that a candidate’s race or gender “should not be the principal driver of a campaign.”

“I am a person of color who represents a majority white district and I have governed in a way irrespective of sex or race or gender or any other distinction that one may have,” Conaway said.

Murphy responded, “My experience as a woman is relevant, and thinking otherwise is why we never have elected a woman into congress from South Jersey.”

» READ MORE: ‘Women for Murphy,’ but which one? N.J. Congressional candidate uses photo of governor’s supporters

But Conaway followed a similar script in his opening remarks at the same debate, saying the election would be historic for him.

“If elected I’ll be the first Black physician to serve in the Congress in the nation and I’ll be the first African American male to represent South Jersey in the Congress,” he said.

Conaway and Murphy were running mates to represent their shared Assembly district. They align on various issues like abortion rights, but they differed on universal health care at the debate.

Conaway said he does not support a single payer system, and he doesn’t think Americans are ready for a government-run health care system. But he said he supports helping people access health care, like providing the option to buy-in to Medicare.

Murphy, on the other hand, said she supports protecting Medicare and moving toward universal health care. She said that health care is a human right.

Conaway has been in office since 1998, while Murphy has been in office since 2018.

Civil rights attorney Cohn, 44, of Burlington County, and Schoengood, 30, a business owner who lives in Monmouth County, have also been campaigning passionately for the nomination.

Cohn, of Lumberton, says in his campaign he is “progressive where it’s productive,” and “moderate where it matters.” He argues he can take on extremists while collaborating with those who disagree with him but also want to solve problems.

Cohn led government relations work nationally for The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a Philly-based organization that advocates for free speech on campuses, also known as “FIRE,” for more than a decade. He said he advocated for free speech policies in almost every state and successfully worked across the political spectrum. He has also worked for the AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania and briefly for the ACLU.

Schoengood, of Manalapan, owns a seafood distribution business with her husband. She said she saw both how government can be used for good, and how broken it is, during her time interning for U.S. Rep. Jerry Nadler (D., N.Y.) and U.S. Rep. Bonnie Coleman Watson (D., N.J.).

She lags behind in fundraising, and in the eyes of New Jersey Globe editor David Wildstein, she did not have a clear enough path to victory to be included in the publication’s debate, along with Schkeeper.

But Schoengood, who has raised a little more than $20,000, argued that she doesn’t need a lot of money to have a successful grassroots campaign, and bristled at being judged by her funds and social media followers for participation in the debate.

Schkeeper, an Ocean City Schools high school music teacher who lives in Medford in Burlington County, lags far behind his competitors in funding, only recently filing campaign contributions of a measly $3,554, most of which had not been spent as of late March.

Schkeeper, whose father died by suicide when he was a child, said in an interview with the Inquirer’s editorial board that voters will hear his “connection to the issues that are directly related to their very livelihood and subsistence,” which will push him to victory.

A larger shift in New Jersey politics muddled a particular advantage Conaway initially had in the race, potentially helping Murphy and the first-time candidates: the county line.

New Jersey’s ballot design, known as “the county line,” has lined up county party-backed candidates together on the ballot, which has been viewed as giving an unfair leg-up to candidates favored by the establishment.

Due to a lawsuit filed by Kim, for which Schoengood was a co-complainant for, the old design won’t appear on the Democratic primary ballots.

“If you had asked me this before the county line decision, I would have unequivocally told you Herb Conaway was the clear favorite,” said Micah Rasmussen, director of the Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics at Rider University.

“I think that the end of the line gave a lot of new life, and a lot of new possibility to Carol Murphy that she might not have otherwise had,” he added.

The county line will still appear on the Republican primary ballot in most New Jersey counties.

The line won’t be on the Burlington County ballot because the county clerk decided to adhere to the federal ruling in Kim’s case, but Rajesh Mohan, a cardiologist, will be on the line in Monmouth and Mercer Counties, and the Burlington County Republican Screening Committee endorsed him.

Mohan, 60, of Holmdel in Monmouth County, ran unsuccessfully as an independent against Republicans in a 2022 township committeeperson race before running as one.

He calls himself “the Republican candidate” for the district in his campaign videos, which could be misleading to people who don’t know much about the race.

Mohan didn’t respond to an interview request, but his campaign website shows he wants to reform the Affordable Care Act, coordinate with NATO allies, fight for Medicare and Social Security for seniors, strengthen border security, and streamline the asylum seeking process by holding it at U.S. consulates “in neighboring and friendly countries,” not at the border.

While the conservative doctor doesn’t mention abortion on his website, he shared a post from a right-wing account on X attacking Conaway on abortion.

While Mohan has establishment support, his biggest competitor Shirley Maia-Cusick, 63, has raised almost double as much as him.

Maia-Cusick, an attorney who now lives in Medford in Burlington County, moved to the district from Bethlehem in Hunterdon County after suspending her Senate campaign.

She works as an immigration consultant, and advertises her work as “all things immigration,” including attending U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services interviews, ICE visits, detention center visits, and case management for immigration filings. But she said closing the border is a top priority for her.

Maia-Cusick, who is from Brazil, contended that it’s unfair that undocumented people entered the country since she immigrated legally.

“During the course of my life I’m living here, I never saw such a crisis,” she said. “Such a disgraceful, detestable situation. The border, everything, is kinda like, really out of order.”

She also touted her support for the military, law enforcement, and Social Security.

Another candidate, Gregory Sobocinski, lags in fundraising, and did not respond to an interview request. Sobocinski unsuccessfully ran as an independent in 2022 and placed himself to the right of both his Republican and Democratic competitors.

Republican Michael Francis Faccone, another candidate in the race, has not submitted any campaign finance data, as of late March.

Despite the district now leaning blue, Carlos Cruz, a New Jersey Republican political consultant, said that top Democratic contenders Conaway and Murphy aren’t as strong of candidates as Kim was.

“Am I saying it’s a definite flip? No, but I like our chances,” Cruz said.