The recent New Jersey primary elections have brought significant changes, with five party-endorsed Assembly candidates losing in the primaries. This marked a notable shift as these were the first state elections using new office block ballots. These ballots, mandated by law, did not place all endorsed candidates in the same row or column, though they still indicated party endorsements.
Antoinette Miles, New Jersey state director of the Working Families Party, commented on this change: “Anytime anyone beat the line was sort of like gravity being defied or an earth-shaking moment,” she said. “This election really demonstrates that there are some fissures and democracy can play out.”
Julia Sass Rubin from Rutgers University described the primary results as a “political earthquake.” Her research had been pivotal in a lawsuit that led to the end of the traditional party line ballot design. According to Sass Rubin, “Tuesday’s election was a very encouraging sign that New Jersey is becoming a real democracy.”
In 10 counties, gubernatorial candidates endorsed by county parties lost—a rare occurrence until now. Sass Rubin noted that since 2011 only one Assembly challenger had beaten a county line candidate in a primary.
More than 1.27 million residents participated in this primary, setting a record for non-federal primaries with about 31% turnout among registered Democrats and Republicans.
As of Monday afternoon, only one Assembly race remained uncalled while final votes were still being counted. In Hoboken’s Democratic primary for the 32nd Legislative District, Mayor Ravi Bhalla and Katie Brennan defeated party-endorsed candidates.
Other notable outcomes include Ed Rodriguez winning against Union County Commissioner Sergio Granados in Union County’s 20th District by over 100 votes. In Camden County’s 4th District Republican primaries, Amanda Esposito and Gerard McManus secured victories with county endorsements.
In Newark’s 28th District, Assemblywoman Garnet Hall lost despite initially opting out after failing to secure backing from local Democratic parties. The nominations went to incumbents Cleopatra Tucker and Chigozie Onyema.
Assemblywoman Barbara McCann Stamato lost her seat in Hudson County’s 31st District after William Sampson overtook her lead post-primary count adjustments.
Katie Brennan highlighted their victory saying: “We just showed the whole state that the people can beat the party bosses.”
In Bergen County’s 39th District Democratic primary without incumbents, Andrew Labruno emerged as top vote-getter followed closely by Donna Abene.
Republicans John Azzariti and Robert Auth retained their positions in Bergen County’s GOP primaries for the same district against Frank Pallotta.
The last undecided race remains in Atlantic County’s 2nd District where Maureen Rowan leads but awaits final vote counts between Joanne Famularo and Bruce Weekes. Although Democrats outnumber Republicans here traditionally, GOP dominance has persisted recently across all three seats.
