Former U.S. State Department official Jason Blazakis, one of two Democratic candidates for New Jersey’s highly competitive 7th congressional district, raised $165,519 in the 4th quarter of 2023 and had $228,197 left on-hand as of the start of 2024.
Since entering the race last August, Blazakis has raised a total of $360,218; $71,600 of that total came from himself. In the 4th quarter, he received 1,200 individual contributions, with 83% of donations being under $100.
“These numbers are a testament to our campaign’s growing strength by the day,” Blazakis’s campaign manager Alma Baker said in a statement. “Voters in New Jersey are tired of Republican extremism and want a representative who can beat Tom Kean Jr., get to work on the issues, and fight for New Jersey in Congress.”
But the total puts Blazakis a fair bit behind his primary opponent, former New Jersey Working Families Party director Sue Altman. (A third Democratic contender, Summit Councilman Greg Vartan, recently ended his campaign.) Altman, who’s been in the race for eight months, has raised around $780,000 in total, and all of her fundraising quarters have clocked in at above $200,000.
Altman’s financial edge is important both in a direct sense – money helps candidates run good campaigns, after all – and in a more symbolic sense; party leaders across the 7th district will be looking for candidates who have proven their fundraising prowess, and Altman has been consistently ahead in that regard.
In late February, Democrats in Hunterdon County, where both Altman and Blazakis live, will hold their county convention to determine who will get the county party’s organizational line for Congress. Five other counties will host their own conventions later to decide the same thing, but whoever is able to get party support in Hunterdon will likely go into those later conventions with significant momentum.
The ultimate winner of the Democratic primary will face Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-Westfield), who unseated Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-Ringoes) in a tight 2022 race. Kean hasn’t released his 4th quarter fundraising numbers yet; as of last October, he had nearly $1.8 million in his warchest.