Former Democrat Rep. Tom Malinowski is directly targeting President Donald Trump as he launches a bid to return to Congress.
On Thursday, Malinowski, a former two-term congressman who previously served as a diplomat and State Department official during the Obama administration, declared his candidacy for the soon-to-be vacant seat in New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District.
The seat is currently held by Democrat Rep. Mikie Sherrill, who won Tuesday’s gubernatorial election in New Jersey. Sherrill will be inaugurated as the Garden State’s next governor on Jan. 20, which will trigger a special election to fill her congressional seat.
“I’m running to deliver again what New Jerseyans need — better and lower cost health care, housing, and transportation — and to take on Trump’s corruption, abuse of power, and attacks on democracy. I will be ready for the fight from day one,” Malinowski said in his campaign launch video.
Malinowski was first elected to Congress in 2018, representing the 7th District, which is a top swing seat in the Garden State. He flipped the seat from red to blue by beating out incumbent GOP Rep. Leonard Lance.
Two years later, Malinowski narrowly won reelection over New Jersey Senate Republican leader Thomas Kean Jr. But in 2022, he lost a rematch with Kean by nearly two points.
The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), the campaign arm of the House GOP, criticized Malinowski as he entered the race.
“Out of touch Democrat Tom Malinowski wants his D.C. gig back so he can return to getting rich off insider trading,” NRCC Spokeswoman Maureen O’Toole told Fox News Digital as she pointed back to a House Ethics Committee investigation into the then-congressman over failure to report stock trades.
O’Toole charged that Mainowski is “still the same slimy, corrupt hack who New Jerseyans fired three years ago.”
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