All New Jersey congressional districts but one will have Democratic or Republican primaries in June ahead of pivotal midterm elections nationwide.
In all, 38 Democrats and 15 Republicans filed in the state’s dozen House districts by Monday’s deadline. Sen Cory Booker’s seat is also up this year; he faces no Democratic opposition, though four Republicans filed for their party’s nomination.
More Democratic House races are crowded, with 13 candidates having filed for the 12th District seat in central Jersey held by Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, a Democrat who is retiring.
The only district without a primary is the 1st District in South Jersey, represented by six-term Democrat Donald Norcross. In the 8th District, which covers parts of Essex, Hudson and Union counties, no Republican filed to challenge Democratic incumbent Rob Menendez.
The midterm elections, in November, are crucial to Donald Trump’s presidency. He’s pressuring fellow Republicans to pass a bill that would block voting by millions of people, particularly immigrants and people of little means. Should Democrats win the majority in both houses, Trump has said they are certain to start impeachment proceedings.
Anyone can challenge a candidate through March 27. Secretary of State Dale Caldwell, who is also the lieutenant governor, needs to resolve all challenges by April 1 for the June 2 primary. Challenges typically involve the signatures on candidate filing petitions. House candidates needed at least 500 valid signatures from registered voters in their districts, while Senate candidates needed 2,500 statewide.
These are the candidates who filed to run.
Senate: Incumbent Democrat Cory Booker; Republicans Robert Lebovics, Justin Murphy, Richard Tabor and Alex Zdan.
District 1 (Camden County and parts of Burlington and Gloucester): Incumbent Democrat Donald Norcross; Republican Damon Galdo.
District 2 (Atlantic, Cape May, Cumberland and Salem counties and parts of Gloucester and Ocean): Incumbent Republican Jeff Van Drew; Democrats Tim Alexander, Zack Mullock, Terri Reese and Bayly Winder.
District 3 (parts of Burlington, Mercer and Monmouth counties): Incumbent Democrat Herb Conaway; Republicans Justin Barbera, Jason Cullen and Michael McGuire.
District 4 (parts of Monmouth and Ocean counties): Incumbent Republican Chris Smith; Democrats John Blake and Rachel Peace.
District 5 (parts of Bergen, Passaic and Sussex counties): Incumbent Democrat Josh Gottheimer; Republicans John Aslanian and Sean Kirrane.
District 6 (parts of Middlesex and Monmouth counties): Incumbent Democrat Frank Pallone and challengers Kate Bansil and John Hsu; Republican Hillary Herzig.
District 7 (Hunterdon and Warren counties and parts of Morris, Somerset, Sussex and Union): Incumbent Republican Tom Kean Jr.; Democrats Rebecca Bennett, Michael Roth, Tina Shah and Brian Varela.
District 8 (parts of Essex, Hudson and Union counties): Incumbent Democrat Rob Menendez and challenger Mussab Ali.
District 9 (parts of Bergen, Hudson and Passaic counties): Incumbent Democrat Nellie Pou; Republicans Tiffany Burress and Rose Pino.
District 10 (parts of Essex, Hudson and Union counties): Incumbent Democrat LaMonica McIver and challenger Lawrence Poster; Republican Carmen Bucco.
District 11 (parts of Essex, Morris and Passaic): Democrats Donald Cresitello, Joseph Lewis II, Analilia Mejia and Justin Strickland; Republican Joe Hathaway.
District 12 (parts of Mercer, Middlesex, Somerset and Union counties): Democrats Matt Adams, Sue Altman, Brad Cohen, Elijah Dixon, Adam Hamawy, Kyle Little, Adrian Mapp, Verlina Reynolds-Jackson, Shanel Robinson, Squire Servance, Sujit Singh, Jay Vaingankar and Sam Wang; Republican Gregg Mele.
