Hunterdon County Democrats re-elected Michael Drulis as their county chairman on Saturday.
Drulis won a special election in November 2025 to replace Tom Malinowski, who resigned and moved to South Orange to run in a special congressional primary in New Jersey’s 11th district. He defeated Khush Pall by a margin of 63%-37%.
Hunterdon remains all-Republican at the county level, but elections have become more competitive in recent years. In the 2025 gubernatorial race, Republican Jack Ciattarelli won the county by 4.5 percentage points; he had won Hunterdon by nearly 19 points against Gov. Phil Murphy in 2021. In presidential elections, Donald Trump carried Hunterdon by almost 7 points in 2024, up from 4 points in 2020; both were far less than Trump’s 14-point win in 2016.
He is the husband of Assemblywoman Mitchelle Drulis (D-Raritan) and serves as the city administrator of New Brunswick.
Michele Liebtag, the political director of CWA Local 1036, was re-elected vice chair. Hope Kaufman is the secretary, and John Kashwick is the treasurer. Executive board members are: Kent Davis; Dante DiPirro; Stephen Leftly; Dominick Puzio; Rene Rao; John Weber; and Kiely Williams-Cox.
“The team and I are both grateful and humbled by the support shown by this Committee,” Drulis stated. “Be assured that with each action we will seek to maintain your confidence as we all do the work together of getting Democrats elected across Hunterdon County.”
Lawrence
Elissa Grodd Schragger was re-elected to a second term as the Lawrence Township Democratic Municipal Chair on Saturday. She is backing Jennifer Keyes-Maloney in the Mercer County Democratic chair contest on June 30.
Jerome Montes, the communications director at New Jersey Citizen Action, was elected vice chair, and veteran Democratic insider Joe Forte is the secretary; the treasurer is Theo Siggelakis, a top aide to Mercer County Executive Dan Benson and prominent Democratic fundraiser.
Keyes-Maloney and James Gee are facing off in the contest to succeed outgoing Mercer County Democratic Chair Janice Mironov.