Gloucester County Democrats have opted not to take sides in the race for the 2nd congressional district, leaving the five Democrats running to dethrone Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-Dennis) on equal footing.
Tim Alexander, Zack Mullock, Bayly Winder, Terri Reese, and Bill Finn have been campaigning for the South Jersey district for months, but Gloucester Democrats decided to forgo an endorsement prior to their convention last night. It’s not the first time that’s happened; the party also remained neutral in the 2022 and 2024 primaries for the same district.
“While we will remain neutral in the Second Congressional District primary election, we have five good people running and look forward to working with the winner of that race,” the party organization said in a statement posted to Facebook.
Gloucester Democrats did give party support to five incumbents running for re-election: U.S. Senator Cory Booker, 1st district Rep. Donald Norcross (D-Camden), and County Commissioners Joann Gattinelli (D-Washington), Jim Jefferson (D-Woodbury), and Matthew Weng (D-Pitman). (Gloucester Democrats obey a rather top-down process, so there aren’t any traditional vote totals available to report.)
Heading into the June primary election, Alexander – a civil rights attorney and former detective who has run for the 2nd district twice before – will have the lion’s share of county support, winning party endorsements in Atlantic, Ocean, Cumberland, and Salem Counties. Mullock, the mayor of the city of Cape May, got the endorsement in Cape May County.
All in all, counties where Alexander has party support make up around 72% of the district’s primary vote; Mullock-supporting Cape May makes up 15%, and neutral Gloucester is home to the final 13%.
But Mullock and Winder, a former USAID official who only narrowly lost out on the Atlantic endorsement, have raised far more money than Alexander, keeping them firmly in contention for the district’s nomination. In 2024, the first time the district hosted a Democratic primary without the county line, Alexander had a big edge in party support but narrowly lost to a better-funded rival, Joe Salerno.
This story was updated at 7:12 p.m. with the Gloucester Democrats’ social media statement on the CD-2 race.
