With Mikie Sherrill resigning her Congressional seat to become NJ Governor, South Orange and Maplewood will help decide the crowded Democratic primary for NJ-11. Primary day is Feb. 5, but Mail-In Ballots started mailing out to voters on Dec. 22. Read more election coverage here.
Tom Malinowski wants you to know that, among the crowded field of candidates in the Democratic primary to fill Mikie Sherrill’s Congressional seat (currently numbering 12), only he has previously served in Congress, meaning that, if elected, he could hit the ground running, re-entering Washington with seniority on committees.
His experience and seniority, he says, are key to his plan for putting democracy back together when Democrats retake control of the House — perhaps better than before. Yes, Malinowski is an optimist.
Malinowski comes across as confident, but not impressed with himself — despite a glowing resume that includes being a Rhodes Scholar and serving as Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor in the Obama Administration. What Malinowski is impressed with is the situation that the U.S. now finds itself in. One that is unrecognizable from his days as a diplomat.
“I’m nostalgic for 2017,” he joked ruefully at one point at a recent campaign event in Maplewood hosted by Nino Badridze.
Tom Malinowski with Nino Badridze, Maplewood, NJ, December 13, 2025. Photo by Alex Goodman.
A World in Disorder
“I’m excited about Tom’s candidacy for this particular Congressional district, because I grew up in a governmental oligarchy in the Soviet Union,” said Badridze to her neighbors who had gathered in her living room to meet Malinowski on December 13. Badridze emigrated from the former Soviet state of Georgia when she was 25, “so my adulthood formed in this country. And my first time voting for real was in 2016. That was a shock to the system. Nine years later I find myself living from oligarchy to bro-ligarchy.”
“It was time to do something,” said Badridze, motioning to Malinowski. “I’m excited about Tom’s candidacy, in particular because of his experience with international affairs.” Addressing Malinowski, she said, “You know how important the region where I come from is for the world and for the national security for the United States. You have a great track record already in Congress fighting for things that are important inside the country and for all of us on a daily basis.”
In an interview with Village Green, Malinowski explained that foreign affairs and national security are high on his list of priorities.
“There’s still a lot of bipartisan agreement of what America’s role in the world should be. For example, we should support our allies and not join the axis of evil with Russia and China, as Trump seems to want to do. That’s an area where I’ve been a leader and would be again from day one because of my experience and seniority there.”
Photo by Alex Goodman.
“Our foreign policy is basically whatever Trump wants to do on any given day,” said Malinowski. “There are no principles or values behind it anymore, other than a competition to see which countries and leaders can best flatter and pay the president of this family. And I fear some of us may take for granted just how important America stabilizing the world has been since the Second World War.
“Putin is promising not to attack Europe. Just as he promised not to attack Ukraine up until the day he attacked Ukraine. Those countries know better, and they know that NATO and the alliance with the United States is the thing that has kept half the world at peace since the 1950s. And that if you take that away, dictators are going to fill the vacuum. These alliances we’ve had through the democracies around the world have been the most successful experiment in preventing war in the history of the world. And to turn our backs on that, it is just unbelievably dangerous.”
“I will do everything in my power to make sure that Americans don’t forget that in our own self-interest, we continue to stand up for those values around around the world.”
The Levers of Power — and Tariffs
Regarding that power, Malinowski described how a Democratic minority in Congress could be effective — although he fully believes that the House will be flipped in the November 2026 midterm elections.
“If I win, the margin in the house will be 219 to 216, and that means that it would only take two Republicans to crossover, for example, by signing a discharge petition with Democrats to get something bipartisan passed. I think on some issues that’s not going to be possible, but there are solid prospects on other issues.”
“Repealing the tariffs, for example, which would be the single most impactful thing we can do to lower costs for Americans.”
“It’s a catastrophe for our foreign relations,” said Malinowski regarding Trump’s tariffs. “But it’s also the single most obvious driver of cost of living being too high because it is literally a tax on every product we buy that was made overseas while making manufacturing costs higher for companies making things in America, and incentivizing American companies to raise their prices too. So across the board, it makes everything more expensive. And it happened because one man made a bad decision that can easily be reversed.”
Photo by Alex Goodman.
Malinowski noted that the Senate did stand up to Trump on this issue.
“This is where me knowing a little bit about the law and how Congress operates helps,” said Malinowski. “The President used his emergency powers to impose these tariffs. And Congress has the ability to revoke the emergency. The Senate already voted several times to revoke different aspects of the tariff emergency — for Canada, for a couple of other countries — because some Republicans crossed over, and that vote has been blocked in the House by Speaker Mike Johnson.”
“On what issues can we reach across the aisle? That’s one where I think there’s at least a realistic prospect, no guarantee. But at least a realistic prospect, given the impact on the economy, and the growing realization among Republicans that they may lose the midterms, for a bipartisan agreement to revoke at least some of the President’s tariff moves.”
If the Supreme Court rules that Trump cannot use his emergency authority, the Congress will still need to act, said Malinowski.
“Trump could then use other authorities that have been delegated to presidents by Congress to reimpose at least some of the tariffs. We would then have to deal with that. But broadly speaking, that’s something I think we need to go after in this Congress. And there are plenty of Republicans who agree with us. The question is always, will they do anything about it? We’re seeing on more issues like the Epstein files, and a vote in the House to restore collective bargaining rights for federal employees that Trump tried to end. That’s going to be a bipartisan vote that goes against Trump.”
“The closer we get to the Republicans losing the midterms, more incentives, some of them will have to cross over. And I want to be there to seize those opportunities.”
Regulating AI
Malinowski wrote movie reviews for his high school paper and is a fan of the sci-fi genre (the Andor Star Wars series is a favorite). Perhaps because of this, he can get into the weeds on artificial intelligence, and while he is no Luddite, he sees the need for regulation in some quarters.
“The big question facing all of us is — are we going to be commanded by or in command of these new technologies? So understanding how to use them, how to manipulate them, how to shape what they do for us rather than just becoming slaves to them.”
“I think of all the issues I’m running on, this is the one that’s most distinctive.”
Photo by Alex Goodman.
Maplewood voters who gathered at Badridze’s house agreed, questioning Malinowski at length on the topic. Malinowski had strong words for social media platforms “that keep us engaged by amplifying our fear and anger” and fueling extremism and bigotry in politics while increasing loneliness and depression, especially among children.
One action he is proposing is repealing Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act which was passed in the 1990s and protects Big Tech platforms from being sued “for the harm they do, even when there is evidence that their products have driven teens to commit suicide, or helped terrorist groups recruit members.”
Another proposed policy — one of many articulated on Malinowski’s platform — is to require all content generated by AI and released on public platforms to be labeled as AI, “so that we are not deceived by fakes.”
Meet South Orange’s Newest Resident
A charge that Malinowski’s fellow candidates lob at him is that he is a carptetbagger and should run again for NJ-7, which he flipped from red to blue in 2018, but lost in 2022 after it was redistricted. [There is no requirement that members of Congress live in their district; they are, however, required to live in the state where their district is located.]
Malinowski counters that he is the only candidate for NJ-11 who has previously served any community in the district as a U.S. Rep. — in the old NJ-7, he represented Millburn and Dover, which have since been redistricted to NJ-11.
He also likes to point out that he has been a part of the SOMA community, teaching ethics and foreign policy at Seton Hall University as a visiting scholar.
And he had news: Malinowski is South Orange’s newest resident. He is now renting an apartment in the Village after selling his house in Ringoes in Hunterdon County.
Ethics Investigation
Malinowski has been dogged by the shadow of a House Ethics Committee review of his late stock trading disclosures that was unresolved at the end of his last term, but ended due to loss of jurisdiction. Malinowski has called the late reporting a clerical error. He subsequently set up a blind trust to separate himself from any stock-trading decisions.
“The committee would have to affirmatively vote to open up some inquiry and that won’t happen in my case because there was nothing,” Malinowski told Village Green. “The only thing that they were doing before was just working with me to make sure that all of the month by month financial disclosures were fully complete, and that work was done months before my last election. But there was no allegation from the committee that I’d done anything unethical. It was an administrative reporting issue that we resolved a long time ago, kind of like Mikie [Sherrill]’s situation.
Additionally, Malinowski said that he had supported H.R.1679 — the Bipartisan Ban on Congressional Stock Ownership Act — that would have prohibited Members of Congress and their spouses “from owning or trading stocks, bonds, commodities, futures, or any other form of security.”
Frontrunner?
Malinowski’s campaign shared an internal memo, dated December 2, that showed Malinowski far ahead of the crowded field in polling and name recognition.
According to the survey, Malinowski had double the vote (28 percent) of his nearest competitor, Essex County Commissioner Brendan Gill (12 percent). Lieutenant Governor Tahesha Way and former Bernie Sanders’ national political director Analilia Mejia each had five percent. All other candidates were at two percent or below — but 31 percent of likely Democratic primary voters were undecided.
Malinowski also had the highest name recognition of the candidates with 63 percent, compared to 40 percent for Gill, 23 percent for John Bartlett, 20 percent for Mejia and Jeffrey Grayzel, and 16 percent for Zach Beecher. Other candidates were not tested.
On December 10, Malinowski’s campaign reported that it had raised over $750,000 in the month since launching, with donations coming from more than 1,800 individual contributors including 1,100+ small-dollar donors. Malinowski is continuing his policy of rejecting corporate PAC [political action committee] money — “a commitment he has maintained throughout this campaign and his career in public service.”
On December 14, Malinowski resoundingly won the endorsement of the Morris County Democratic Committee, but will not have the MCDC slogan with his name on Morris County ballots since the convention was held after ballots were printed; Brendan Gill won the Essex County Democratic Committee endorsement in a contentious convention held just one day after the filing deadline. The Passaic County Democratic Committee made an internal decision to grant its party slogan to two candidates — Passaic County commissioner John Bartlett and Lt. Gov. Tahesha Way, both county residents — issuing a dual endorsement without releasing a vote tally, as reported by Morristown Green.
U.S. Senator Andy Kim — a popular pol with progressive SOMA voters — has endorsed Malinowski, explaining in a recent letter that “Tom is tested, experienced, and ready to serve on day one. At a time of real uncertainty and fear for our country, we need someone who understands both the stakes, and has the seniority to navigate Congress effectively upon election. Tom has already delivered for families in Morris County and across New Jersey, and he’ll be an immediate force in the House protecting our democracy, standing up to extremism, and fighting for our values.”
Kim adds, “I’ve known Tom for years, from our work in national security to our time serving in the House of Representatives together. I trust his judgment, I know his integrity, and I’ve seen his commitment to doing what’s right — even when it’s not politically easy. He stood with me when I took on the political machine, and I’m proud to stand with him now.”
Despite the polling, the contributions and the Kim endorsement, Malinowski said that, with the Feb. 5 primary coming fast, his campaign was taking nothing for granted and would be doing “everything, everywhere, all at once.”
Winning Hearts and Minds
After the Maplewood meet and greet at Badridze’s house, attendees were enthusiastically supporting Malinowski.
Longtime Maplewood residents Al and Dorothy Kuehn were convinced.
“We didn’t know him,” said Dorothy, 84.
“We knew of him,” said Al, 86, “but now we’re definitely supporters, no question about it. I liked what he had to say.”
Al turned to Dorothy and asked her, “What was something that resonated with you?”
“He understood because of his background, the importance of democracy,” she said. “For him to come here as a child and realize what an opportunity it was. It’s a big deal. And now that’s being torn apart.”
“He has a passion,” said Al. “He’s got a passion for what he wants to do. Which is really great to have somebody like that in politics, that’s for sure.”
“I thought he had really intelligent and well thought-out answers and he had some optimism, which felt very refreshing to me and something of a relief,” said Rachael Schwarz.
“I like that he has a positive attitude,” said Marc Schiffman. “It’s good that he’s thinking about social media and AI.”
Schwarz added, “I also thought it’s interesting that he won’t come in as a freshman so that he can affect change more quickly.”
“We were strictly here for information,” said Schiffman.
