Thursday, October 15, 2026
B.C. votes in 9 days

New Jersey’s 8th District

U.S. House · NJ-8

Election day November 3, 2026 · forecast of October 15, 2026

Our forecast gives the Democrats a more than 99% chance of winning, with an average lead of 35.8 points.

Safe seat. Chance of a final gap under 5 points: under 1%.

Projected vote share

Projection by party

  • Democrat 66.0%

    Rob Menendez

  • Republican 30.2%
  • Other 3.8%

Thin vertical mark: 2024 result.

Compared with the average

Democrat Republican Other
NJ-8 66.0%30.2%3.8%
National averageUnited States 54.5%+11.5 44.2%−14.0 1.2%+2.5

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

Projection track

How the projection has moved

Local profile

Latino citizens aged 18 and over44.9% (± 1.1)

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

Rob Menendez · Democrat

Primary results

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

Democratic primary Rob Menendez 68.8% 28,509 votes

Who's running

The candidates

Candidates for the upcoming election.

  • Democrat Incumbent

    Rob Menendez

    General-election qualification remains to be verified.

  • Democrat Challenger

    Rob Menendez

    General-election qualification remains to be verified.

  • Other Challenger

    Barilla, Richard Joseph

    General-election qualification remains to be verified.

  • Democrat Open seat

    Rob Menendez

    source

Previous election (2024)

The Democrats won by 24.5 points.

Our current projection: the Democrats ahead by 35.8 points.

Nearby districts

Party ahead and how sure the projection is.

  • NJ-10 Democrat, safe seat
  • NJ-9 Democrat, safe seat
  • NJ-11 Democrat, safe seat
  • NJ-6 Democrat, safe seat
  • NJ-5 Democrat, safe seat
  • NJ-12 Democrat, safe seat

Watch list

The tightest races

The smallest projected gaps between the top two.

  1. AZ-2Republican52%5.7-point gap
  2. KY-6Republican53%5.8-point gap
  3. VA-1Republican58%5.8-point gap
Forecast updated