Monday, November 2, 2026
U.S. midterms in 1 day

New Jersey’s 3rd District

U.S. House · NJ-3

Election day November 3, 2026 · forecast of November 2, 2026

Our forecast gives the Democrats a more than 99% chance of winning, with an average lead of 21.1 points.

Safe seat. Chance of a final gap under 5 points: 2%.

Projected vote share

Projection by party

  • Democrat 60.5%

    Herb Conaway, incumbent

  • Republican 39.4%

    Michael P. McGuire

Thin vertical mark: 2024 result.

What Orbit says

Orbit, our experimental model, picks the same favourite as our main forecast: the Democrat, with a 93% chance (> 99% according to Harfang des neiges).

ModelFavouriteChance
Harfang des neigesDemocrat> 99%
OrbitDemocrat93%
50/50 blendDemocrat96%

Figures as of November 2, 2026. The blend averages the two chances; in replays of the 2018 and 2022 Quebec elections, it beat our main forecast on its own.

Every race according to Orbit

Compared with the average

Democrat Republican Other
NJ-3 60.5%39.4%0.1%
National averageUnited States 54.9%+5.6 43.9%−4.4 1.2%−1.2

Simple average of the 435 districts, not weighted by population.

Projection track

How the projection has moved

Local profile

Latino citizens aged 18 and over9.0% (± 0.3)

Share of all citizens aged 18 and over (ACS 2020–2024 estimate). Not a share of registered or actual voters.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, citizen voting-age population by race and ethnicity, ACS 2020–2024, 119th Congress districts

Current member

Herb Conaway · Democrat

Primary results

Held June 2, 2026 · Certified official result · Official source

Democratic primary Herb Conaway 100.0% 50,437 votes
Republican primary Michael P. Mcguire 57.9% 14,810 votes

Who's running

The candidates

Candidates for the upcoming election.

  • Democrat Incumbent

    Herb Conaway

    source
  • Other Challenger

    Kelly, Ryan Michael

    General-election qualification remains to be verified.

  • Republican Challenger

    Michael P. Mcguire

    source

Previous election (2024)

The Democrats won by 8.6 points.

Our current projection: the Democrats ahead by 21.1 points.

Nearby districts

Party ahead and how sure the projection is.

  • NJ-1 Democrat, safe seat
  • NJ-4 Republican, safe seat
  • NJ-12 Democrat, safe seat
  • NJ-2 Republican, competitive
  • NJ-6 Democrat, safe seat
  • NJ-7 Democrat, toss-up

Watch list

The tightest races

The smallest projected gaps between the top two.

  1. AZ-2Democrat55%5.7-point gap
  2. VA-1Republican55%5.7-point gap
  3. MI-4Republican56%5.8-point gap
Forecast updated