Abdelaziz wins Democratic Assembly primary in 35th district

Assemblyman Al Abdelaziz (D-Paterson) has won the Democratic primary for State Assembly in the 35th district, edging out his running mate, Passaic County Commissioner Orlando Cruz, by a narrow 261-vote margin.

Abdelaziz leads Cruz by 261 votes, 5,997 to 5,736, in a four-way race.

Kenyatta Stewart, a Paterson resident who is the Newark Corporation Counsel and a supporter of Ras Baraka’s gubernatorial campaign, was the leading vote-getter with 7,298 votes.  A fourth candidate, former Garfield Councilman Romi Herrera, received 2,870 votes; Herrera ran on a slate with gubernatorial candidate Steve Fulop, the mayor of Jersey City.

There are still 853 provisional ballots and 379 VBMs still to be counted; not all of them are Democrats, and not all will pass a review by county election officials.  Cruz would have to take over 60% of these ballots to catch up to Abdelaziz.

Abdelaziz, a former Paterson city councilman, was elected to the Assembly in a January special election convention to replace Benjie Wimberly (D-Paterson), elected to the State Senate the same night.  Abdelaziz is the first Palestinian-American to serve in the New Jersey Legislature.

Stewart replaces Assemblywoman Shavonda Sumter (D-Paterson), who decided not to seek re-election to an eighth term.  Sumter chose to leave electoral politics after being passed over for lieutenant governor in 2017 and 2023, for Congress following the death of Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-Paterson) last year, and for the State Senate; in that race, she lost to Wimberly by one vote.

Cruz plans to seek re-election to the Passaic County Board of Commissioners in 2026.