See here for a list of every contested primary in 2025. More detailed information on gubernatorial and legislative candidates can be found here.
By the time U.S. District Judge Zahid Quraishi outlawed the county organization line for last year’s Democratic primary, the filing deadline had already passed, meaning that candidate lists were already set before the candidates knew what ballots would look like – and forcing the state to wait a year to see what a truly lineless election cycle could look like.
Now, it’s been a year. With ballots largely set—and the mail-in voting process starting Saturday—the New Jersey Globe reviewed legislative, county, and municipal primaries in each of the Garden State’s 21 counties. While this year’s Assembly primaries will have the most competition in decades, there was no similar groundswell in county or municipal primaries.
That at least slightly undermines arguments made by opponents of the county line system; they had long asserted that the line discouraged competition in primaries, since outsider candidates faced steep odds winning off the line and often chose not to run at all. One wrinkle about this year’s election, though, is that state politicians implemented new, stricter ballot access rules this year that may have prevented some candidates from making it to the primary ballot.
On June 10, voters will get to pick from 202 Assembly candidates, the most in decades (209 filed, but seven withdrew or were disqualified following eligibility challenges).
In 2023, voters saw competitive primaries in 13 of the state’s 40 legislative districts; this year, it’s 25. (And 2023 had State Senate elections, which is not the case this year.)
Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop’s decision to back a slate of candidates as part of his gubernatorial campaign accounts for a large portion of that swell—the mayor is backing 37 candidates on his Democrats for Change slate, many of whom are challenging Democratic incumbents.
Meanwhile, just six of the state’s 21 counties will host competitive primaries in June. That’s the same total as last year, but down from nine in 2023.
Of the state’s 564 municipalities, 77 will be home to contested primaries this summer, similar to the 75 in 2023 and 83 in 2024.
State officials made it a bit harder to reach the ballot this year: Gov. Phil Murphy signed a bill increasing the number of signatures needed to qualify for the ballot, though the increases were most dramatic for gubernatorial and legislative candidates.
Data for the chart, included below, come from candidate lists released by New Jersey’s 21 counties. The lists contained varying levels of detail, so some counties on the list do not include bracketing or slogan information. (Reach out to zach@njglobe.com if you spot any mistakes or know of a contested primary that’s not listed here.)
Click here for a web version of the list.
Contested primary tracker 2025 - Assembly