2025 NJ Democratic Assembly Primaries

2025 NJ LD-17 Dem Assembly Primary

2025 NJ LD-33 Dem Assembly Primary

2025 NJ LD-31 Dem State Assembly Primary

2025 NJ LD-32 Dem State Assembly Primary

2025 NJ LD-37 Dem State Assembly Primary

2025 NJ LD-39 Democratic Assembly Primary

2025 NJ LD-38 Democratic Assembly Primary

2025 NJ LD-06 Democratic Assembly Primary

2025 NJ LD-35 Democratic Assembly Primary

2025 NJ LD-07 Democratic Assembly Primary

2025 NJ LD-04 Democratic Assembly Primary

2025 NJ LD-02 Democratic Assembly Primary

2025 NJ LD-27 Democratic Assembly Primary

2025 NJ LD-34 Democratic Assembly Primary

2025 NJ LD-20 Democratic Assembly Primary

2025 NJ LD-17 Dem Assembly Primary

The 2025 NJ LD-17 Assembly Democratic Primary, a contest between Incumbents Kevin Egan, and Joe Danielsen saw a somewhat surprisingly close results as Piscataway BOE member Loretta Rivers narrowly almost defeated Danielsen—the author of NJ's controversial OPRA limitation bill

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Danielsen v Rivers

The result was surprising because, despite Rivers having the support of the Working Families Party, Danielsen and Egan had strident support from the local machines—with Bonnie Watson Coleman endorsing both legislators.

Likewise, this result is surprising because both legislators combined spent $400K USD to River's $10K—significantly outspending her, spending on advertisements, and coming close to being dethroned.

The reason for this close result—and Danielsen's narrow win—was Loretta River's strong result with Asians, Latinos, and African Americans in the seat. Potentially buoyed by Baraka's win with minorities, River likely won the groups against Danielsen, and fell short to Egan

Egan, a Middlesex County/New Brunswick Native did best throughout the county, besting Rivers in her home of Piscataway, similarly, Danielsen won reelection due to his longstanding strength in Franklin Township in Somerset—where he's the municipal dem's chair.

https://newjerseyglobe.com/campaigns/egan-danielsen-survive-tight-ld-17-primary/

2025 NJ LD-33 Dem Assembly Primary

The 2025 NJ LD-33 Dem Assembly Primary, a contest between the Hudson County Democratic Organization/Stack machine, and the Hudson Dem dissidents of the North Bergen Nick Sacco Machine and Democrats for Change turned a staggering 39.1% win for Stack's candidates in Northern Hudson

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Larry Wainstein and Tony Hector

With Stack & HCDO Chair Craig Guy throwing Steve Fulop off from official HCDO support, in favor of Josh Gottheimer and Later Mikie Sherrill the stage was set for a civil war in Hudson between forces aligned towards Union City Mayor Brian Stack and against him.

This, in turn, created an alliance between Stack's two most prominent foes, North Bergen Mayor Nick Sacco, and Jersey City Mayor/Dem Gubernatorial candidate Steve Fulop, so as to preserve their power, and work towards sidelining Stack

The war forced the retirement of Assemblyman Julio Marenco in favor of devoting himself to being the "executive director of the North Bergen Housing Authority" rather than fighting in the war,

leading for Sacco and Fulop (Mostly Sacco) to recruit landlord and former North Bergen school board member Tony Hector and former Union City GOP Municipal Chairman (and Trump Supporter) Frank Alonso to run against Stack's candidates; Assemblyman Gabriel Rodriguez and Businessman and 2015/2019/2023 North Bergen Mayoral candidate Larry Wainstein

Wainstein and Alonso, as longtime local foes for Sacco and Stack respectively, were pointed as 'screw you's to the other mayors by each candidate's backers—likewise, their respective inclusions were meant to shore up Wainstein/Alonso's local bases of opposition against the North Bergen/Union City Mayors

In terms of the campaigns, both sides were remarkably similar, campaigning 'for truth' and 'against bossism and corruption'—with the deciding factor being that Stack had a significantly stronger organization and Get-Out the vote effort, being everpresent in Wainstein and Rodriguez's campaign.

Winning not just Stack's own Union City, and allied West New York/Weehawken, but in Guttenberg & Secaucus (whose mayors supported Sacco's slate), and held Sacco's slate to a mere 2.6% win in North Bergen.

2025 NJ LD-31 Dem State Assembly Primary

Results by Candidate

The 2025 NJ LD-31 Assembly Democratic Primary, a contest between Hudson County Commissioner Jerry Walker, Incumbents William Sampson and Barbara McCan Stamato, as well as Bayonne Ward 2 Councilwoman Jaqueline Weimmer was the tertiary Front in the Hudson County Democratic Civil War,

and the 3rd of four that the HCDO won, the preceding two were the Gubernatorial Race, Where Sherrill bested JC Mayor Steve Fulop, and the LD-33 State Assembly Primary, where candidates aligned with Union City Mayor Brian Stack best the candidates aligned with North Bergen Mayor Nick Sacco.

Recruiting the Bayonne Councilwoman, and keeping onside a longtime behind the scenes ally whom, Sister of former JC Mayor Gerald McCann, whom he selected—per the old HCDO tradition of Mayors choosing Assemblypeople—to replace Angela McKnight (who went to the senate upon the retirement of the Ailing Sandra Bolden-Cunningham). In doing so, the Fulop slate had a political heavy hitter, and a relative political unknown

By contrast the HCDO picked Jerry Walker, Commissioner for the the heavily African-American Areas in Ward F: Bergen-Lafayette, and Ward A: Greenville, who had run in the 2024 Special election to replace Don Payne Jr, being beaten by (and for this race, endorsed by) LaMonica McIver but winning the portion of Jersey City in CD-10 convincingly

As well as Bayonne Assemblyman William Sampson, who remained Loyal to the HCDO as his appointer, Jimmy Davis, was running for Sheriff under that banner.

It should be noted that the HCDO sought to negotiate a unity ticket with Stamato and Fulop to keep McCann Stamato in the assembly, such efforts were unsuccessful, but it does emphasize Stamato's political Cache as a longtime HCDO insider since the 1970s; and while she's 66 years old, could open the door for a political comeback in the next decade

Results by Slate

Second Seat

Overall though, While Fulop's slate was able to win over in Kearney, and Bayonne's Wards 2 & 3, Jerry Walker's political organization in JC's Wards F & A ended up carrying the day for the HCDO slate, just as Sampson relying on Davis's organization in Southern Bayonne gave him a slim edge over McCann-Stammato, without which he would've lost.

Herein, the coalitions between the HCDO Slate, and Newark Mayor Ras Baraka were incredibly similar as both the HCDO and Baraka relied heavily on African Americans in the seat—with Fulop's slate attaining a good number of voters who went with Mikie Sherrill; such as in Kearny

2025 NJ LD-32 Dem State Assembly Primary

The 2025 NJ LD-32 State Assembly Primary, a contest between the unaffiliated former Murphy Administration Official Katie Brennan & Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla, Fulop-Aligned Incumbent Jessica Ramirez and JC Councilperson Yousef Saleh,

Hoboken Public Library Director Jennie Pu, and Division Director of Buildings and Street Maintenance Crystal Fonseca saw the progressive unaffiliated slate of Brennan and Bhalla sweep both seats, ousting the Fulop-Aligned incumbent and forcing the HCDO into third place

Fundamentally, the reason for the Progressive Slate's sweep despite Fulop being the Mayor of JC, and winning this district semi-comfortably, is because of Brennan and Bhalla's noteriety in contrast to the other candidates lack-thereof.

Here, While Bhalla is well known for Challenging U.S. Representative Bob Menendez in 2024, Brennan was known for coming forward and alleging that Murphy Campaign/Admin official Al Alvarez sexually assaulted her during the his 2017 campaign, and was kept on despite officials’ knowledge of the allegations

Subsequently entering political exile in New York following making the allegations, the noteriety from this event, alliance with Bhalla—coupled with strong progressive stances by both candidates, and an overall unimpressive Showing by Fulop in the seat (only winning his home district by 14.2%)

allowed for both candidates to win over Councilperson Yousef Saleh, and incumbent Puerto Rican-descended Assemblywoman Jessica Ramirez

By Candidate

Second Seat

2025 NJ LD-37 Dem State Assembly Primary

The 2025 NJ 37th LD Democratic Assembly Primary, a contest between Incumbents Ellen Park and Shama Haider, Together for Bergen LD37 candidates; Real Estate Agent Rosemary Hernandez Carroll and former Teaneck Vice Mayor Emil "Yitz" Stern,

and Democrats for Change candidates Bergen County Committee Delegate Tamar Warburg and Tenafly Councilman Daniel Park (No Relation with E. Park) saw a resounding win for the incumbents in this heavilly Korean/Jewish State Legislative District.

Here, While Fulop recruited Dan Park and Tamar Warburg to try to appeal to Korean and Orthodox voters—tapping into local community anger at Shama Haider, said local community anger itself manifested in the campaign of Stern and Hernandez-Carroll

Said anger was, specifically, that Haider, a Muslim, didn't co-sponsot a bill that would have codified the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism into law in NJ—citing first amendment concerns

From here, the second seat, results highlight the Jewish Community's displeasure with Haider, wirth Rosemary Hernandez Carroll doing best with her neighbors and the Orthodox Jewish Community in Teaneck and Englewood, and Warburg Likewise performing well, and among Daniel Park's neighbors in Tenafly

Daniel Park himself performed well in Tennafly, as well as in Little Korea—Leonia, Palisades Park and Fort Lee—displacing Haider from second place in many precincts though still coming in last place with 22.3% of all ballots casting at least one vote for him.

2025 NJ LD-39 Democratic Assembly Primary

The 2025 NJ LD-39 Democratic assembly Primary, a contest in the part of bergen county with the lowest BCDO presense saw Fulop's Democrats for change win one of the assembly nominations, and comfortably win one of the seats—and overall vote—with frm. Dumont Mayor Andrew LaBruno

In the second seat, the BCDO aligned 2023 assembly Candidate frm. Woodcliff Lake Councilwoman Donna Abene narrowly won over Fulop-aligned Demarest Councilman David Jiang, with the other 2021 candidate frm. Dumont Councilman Damon Englese trailing in last place.

Running against the BCDO, LaBruno—after winning renomination—unexpectedly withdrew to focus more time as head of Dumont's police department (and has been alligned with the BCDO in the past), while David Jiang had bested party backed candidates in local contest before.

2025 NJ LD-38 Democratic Assembly Primary

The NJ LD-38 Primary, a ones sided contest saw incumbents Lisa Swain and Chris Tully trounce their Fulop-backed opponents, Glen Rock BOE president Ramali Robinson and attorney Donald Bonomo in this Trump +0.02% seat

LD-38 Slate Results

LD-38 Second Seats results

2025 NJ LD-06 Democratic Assembly Primary

The Democratic Assembly Primary in LD-06, a contest in the heart of the Camden County Norcross Machine saw the Camdenc County Democratic Committee win by a combined +18.5%, but likewise saw House Majority leader Louis Greenwald best Rebecca Holloway by a surprisingly close +9.4% margin

By Slates

Second Seat

Spending money and organizing in order to stave off a potential upset in this heavily college educated district, the Norcross Machine and Greenwald's campaign unearthed a scandal on the part of Holloway, where she had sold pornographic photos of her feet.

This action received criticism from Assembly Democratic Majority Whip Carol Murphy—one of the highest-ranking women elected in NJ—even as gubernatorial candidate Steve Fulop stood by Holloway and defended her proud anti-Norcross Machine record.

However, despite the unearthing of this scandal, Holloway still had an impressive showing, coming within 10% of unseating the NJ Assembly Dems Majority Leader Greenwald.

Running ahead of Greenwald was Norcross-machine affiliate & appointed Assemblywoman/former county Commissioner Melinda Kane, and behind of Holloway ran Fulop-alligned political newcomer Kevin Ryan.

2025 NJ LD-35 Democratic Assembly Primary

The 2025 Democratic Assembly Primary in LD-35, a contest between Newark Corporation Counsel Kenyatta Stewart, Appointed Incumbent Al Abdelaziz, Passaic County Commissioner Orlando Cruz and former Garfield Councilman Romi Herrera, saw the Baraka Ally Stewart comfortably, and Abdelaziz Narowly win the two respective nominations for this right trending but still über blue seat

Here, Orlando Cruz did best among Latino voters outside of Garfield city—where Herrera had an advantage—coming in second in Paterson's latino precincts, wheras Abdelaziz put up strong margins with the district's muslim (specially Palestinian) voters—carrying Ward 6 comfortably.

herein, Stewart comfortably got first place due to his incredibly strong margins with black voters—winning them by so much as the only African-American candidate in the race.

In terms of Machine v Not machine strength, running under The Democrats for a better 35th district and Democrats for Change slogans, combined, Herrera and Stewart won African Americans and Most Latinos in this seat,

while—led by Abdelaziz's local ties—both Abdelaziz and Cruz won amongst Palestinian Voters in Paterson's Little Ramalah, and Bangladeshi voters in Paterson's ward 2, likewise winning suburban voters in Elmwood Park and North Haledon

Seat 1

Seat 2 Top Candidates

Seat 2 All

2025 NJ LD-07 Democratic Assembly Primary

The 2025 NJ LD-07th Democratic Assembly primary, a contest between longtime incumbent Carroll Murphy, Appointed incumbent Balvir Singh, and Bordentown Township Mayor Eric Holliday saw Carroll Murphy win easilly, but Balvir Singh barely best Holliday despite heavilly outspending him.

All Candidates

Seat 2

Raising a combined $100K to Holliday's $10K, Singh—not just Murphy—should've bested Hollday's Fulop-sponsored challenge easilly.

However, due to Baraka unalining Minorities in Willingsboro from the Burlington Democratic Organization and Holliday's strength in the Bordentown area he was nearly able to oust the appointed incumbent and win the nomination in this safely Democratic Assembly seat

2025 NJ LD-04 Democratic Assembly Primary

the 2025 Dem Primary in LD-04 saw Incumbents Dan Hutchinson and Cody Miller beat Back Politicla neophytes, the Fulop alligned Voneta Hawkins and Rutgers-Camden Assistant Dean Brian Everett. The result however was closer than expected due to Hawkin's strength with African American voters,

Slates

Second Seat

A strength, potentially aided by Newark Mayor Ras Baraka helping dissasociate African Americans from the South Jersey Machine, that likewise helped raise Everett to his 16% showing.

2025 NJ LD-02 Democratic Assembly Primary

The 2025 LD-02 Democratic Assembly Primary, a contest between County-party affiliated Maureen Rowan and Joanne Fabularo and Fulop/Atlantic City Mayor Marty Small jr aligned Bruce Weekes and Lisa Bonanno saw the county-party candidates sweep the Democrats for Change candidates.

Herein, this is because their strong margins throughout the white working class voters of the counties—in addition to fighting the DfC candidates to a draw in Pleasantville—allowed the county-party candidates to overpower Marty Small jr's Jersey City Machine

granting Maureen Rowan and Joanne Fabularo the privilage of challenging the entrenched GOP incumbents of LD-02

Results by Candidate

Results by Slate

2025 NJ LD-27 Democratic Assembly Primary

The 2025 NJ LD-27 Democratic Assembly primary, a contest between incumbents Alizon Collazos-Gill & Rosie Baglione as well as Democrats for Change candidate, Businessman Rohit Dave and Teacher Blake Micheel saw the incumbents win in landslides over their challengers—but with diverging coalitions.

All Candidates

Second Seat

Here, Bagolie significantly outran Collazos-Gill with suburban voters in her native Livingston NJ, as well as Millburn and the Jewish Orthodox areas of Cliffton NJ, whereas Collazos-Gill outran Bagolie in the progressive municipality of Montclair, as well as in Clifton

In Clifton, specifically among the muslim communities, Bagolie lost multiple Muslim votes to Rohit Dave, likely due to her strident political support for bills, including controversial bills seeking to "curb antisemitism".

Something that likely helped her with Jewish voters as it likewise harmed her with muslim voters.

2025 NJ LD-34 Democratic Assembly Primary

The 2025 NJ LD-34 Dem primary, a contest between incumbents Carmen Morales, and Michael Venezia and Democrats for Change candidates former East Orange councilwoman Brittany Claybrooks and Belleville Councilman Frank Vélez saw Morales comfortably win renomination, but Venezia come within 5% of losing to Claybrooks

The reason for this close election was because Claybrooks—a former East Orange Councilwoman—was able to all but consolidate the African-American vote against Venezia (the former Bloomfield Mayor from 2014-2024)

whereas the incumbent's support in Bloomfield, Glen Ridge, and Nutley helped him stay affloat over the vote margin Claybrooks got in the City of Orange and East Orange—municipalities both won on the gubernatorial level, not by their political ally Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop, but by Newark Mayor Ras Baraka

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By Slate

2025 NJ LD-20 Democratic Assembly Primary

The 2025 NJ LD-20 State Assembly Democratic Primary, a contest between Incumbent Annette Quijano, the frm. director of planning and community development for Elizabeth Ed Rodriguez, Union County Commissioner Sergio Granados and Roselle resident and youth mentor Walter Wimbush saw one of the four upsets where Independent candidates beat party-backed campaigns with Ed Rodriguez clinching the second assembly nomination over Sergio Granados.

Campaigning on Transparency, Education, Jobs and Affordability, the Union County Democrats Meeting the Moment Slate ran a strong challenge to the Union County Democratic Organization in LD-20, once more seeing Ed Rodriguez upset Granados.

Winning thanks to strong African American support in Roselle and Union Township, Plus white support in Kenilworth, Rodriguez beat back fellow Elizabeth Resident Sergio Granados through winning the parts of the district that were not in his hometown that mostly backed Newark Mayor Ras Baraka—a pattern for machine unaligned candidates in the 2025 primaries.

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By Candidate