Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-Newark), just out his victory In a September special election to succeed the late Rep. Donald Payne Jr. (D-Newark), he defeated Republican Carmen Bucco to win his first full term representing New Jersey’s 10th Congressional District, the New Jersey Globe projects.

At 9:24 p.m., McIver leads Bucco by 76% to 21%; The majority-black 10th urban district is the most Democratic district in New Jersey and one of the bluest in the entire country, so anything short of a Democratic landslide would have been a surprise.

Voters in the 10th District had been represented by a member of the Payne family beginning in 1989, when Rep. Donald Payne Sr. (D-Newark) took office and became the first black member of Congress in New York’s history. Jersey. Payne died of cancer in 2012 and his son, then-Newark Council President Donald Payne Jr., won his seat.

The younger Payne served in Congress for nearly 12 years, but unfortunately he too suffered health problems, and in April of this year he suffered a heart attack that sent him into a coma from which he never woke up; he He died on April 24. It was too late to replace his name on the June primary election ballots, which he won posthumously; Instead, Governor Phil Murphy ordered a special election, with a primary election on July 16 and a general election on September 18.

In theory, that could have created a wide-open race among the many ambitious Democrats in the 10th District, a race that, as the first independent House special election in New Jersey since 1950, was subject to unpredictable turnout patterns that could have produced unexpected results. The New Jersey Globe initial short list There were 18 names for the seat, and there was always the possibility that a well-funded political outsider could come in and shake up the race as well.

But from the beginning, Democratic leaders in Essex County decided they wanted to present a united front in the special election, and they thought McIver, the president of the Newark City Council and a close ally of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, It was his best bet.. After launching her campaign, McIver earned endorsements from Gov. Phil Murphy, Sen. Cory Booker and Payne’s family, a show of strength that showed she was the consensus choice among New Jersey Democrats.

The 10 other candidates who filed to run, including Linden Mayor Derek Armstead and Hudson County Commissioner Jerry Walker (D-Jersey City), never found an answer to that flood of support. After a largely non-ideological battle in which all candidates ran to carry on Payne’s legacy, McIver ended winning the primaries with 47% of the vote, while Armstead came in second with only 14%.

Shortly after her primary victory, McIver was elected by the Democratic County Committeemen in the 10th District to take Payne’s place on the November ballot for a full term. Then in September, McIver won overwhelmingly the special election to fill the remainder of Payne’s current term; He defeated Bucco, a tailor and frequent candidate for local office, by 81% to 16%.

McIver’s victory tonight means he will be in Congress for at least another two years, and at 38 years old, he could be in Congress for much longer.