Is 2024 The Last Ride at the Rodeo for New Jersey Congressman Chris Smith?

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TOMS RIVER, NJ—Chris Smith has served in Congress since 1981 and has a political career that has now spanned six decades. He’s been in office longer than most of his constituents. He’s done a fine job in Congress, but as President Trump is promising term limits, could 2024 be Smith’s last ride at the rodeo?

Smith has always done well in elections in New Jersey, but a few years ago, he almost lost a primary to America First candidate Mike Crispi.

In 2024, Smith again won in the primarily Republican 4th New Jersey Congressional District, defeating his perennial ‘soft-target’ opponent 67% to 31%. However, the Democrat party is not Smith’s biggest threat. It’s the Republican party, which has been invigorated at the local level with young blood from township mayors to county commissioners.

At the state and assembly level, the next era of Republicans has taken a foothold, including former Point Pleasant Beach Mayor Paul Kanitra, staging a major party upset to become an assemblyman. Berkeley Township Mayor Carmen Amato moving into the state senate spot down south and cleansing of the old-guard Ocean County Board of Commissioners, where the median age was like 100 before last year.

Now, Chris Smith stands as the aging dinosaur of the shore area GOP establishment. He’s been a congressman for 43 years and when he first ran for office, television was dominated by Mork and Mindy, Dallas, Taxi, and Diff’rnt Strokes.