NJ 4th Congressional District Results: Schmid, Smith Win

MIDDLETOWN, NJ — Stephanie Schmid has won the Democratic primary in New Jersey's Congressional District 4, according to The Associated Press.

The Associated Press declared Schmid the winner Thursday with about 40 percent of the votes in: She received 20,000 votes (70 percent of the total), followed by rival Christine Conforti (6,600 votes, or 23 percent) and last, David Applefield with 1,700 votes (six percent of the total).

Schmid will be the Democratic nominee who challenges longtime Republican incumbent Rep. Chris Smith. In a unique twist, Schmid actually once interned for Congressman Smith as a teenager, so she's now trying to unseat her former boss.

Of the three Democratic candidates, Schmid was the one who secured the Monmouth County Democratic party nomination, so she ran "on the line" at the ballot box as the official Democratic candidate.

Applefield died the morning after Tuesday's primary; he collapsed while exercising in Red Bank and was pronounced dead at Riverview Medical Center. He was 64 years old.

Schmid is a lawyer and former U.S. diplomat. Before Schmid decided to run for Congress, she worked as the legal counsel for the Center for Reproductive Rights, which has the goal of increasing access to abortion and abortion rights. (Smith is opposed to abortion.)

From North Jersey originally, Schmid lived in D.C. but moved back to New Jersey last June, to Little Silver, which is in the Fourth District. She also used to work as a diplomat with the U.S. State Department and was stationed in Haiti.

Conforti is a Holmdel native who now lives in Ocean Grove. She ran as a more far-left progressive than Schmid.

Smith is a congressional lifer: He has represented New Jersey's Fourth District for 20 terms. He was first elected to Congress in 1981 and has remained there ever since. Democrats have sought for years — without success — to unseat him.

The fourth congressional district covers nearly all of Monmouth County, including towns such as Holmdel, part of Middletown, Colts Neck, Rumson, Manalapan, Freehold, Red Bank and Wall Township. The fourth district also reaches into Jackson and Lakewood in Ocean County and Hamilton and Robbinsville in Mercer County.

The fourth district has voted for a Republican in the past four presidential elections by comfortable margins: Trump, Romney, McCain and Bush.

Patch's coverage of NJ 4:

Chris Smith's Former Intern Is Now Running Against Him (Sept. 2019)

Here Are The 3 Democrats Trying To Unseat Rep. Chris Smith (May 2020)

David Applefield, Who Ran For Congress Against Chris Smith, Dies (July 8)