Cory Booker, Justin Murphy will debate on October 8, sponsored by N.J. Globe and Rider

The New Jersey Globe and Rider University will host the first debate in the race for a United States Senate seat in New Jersey between Democratic incumbent Cory Booker and Republican Justin Murphy on Thursday, October 8, at 7 PM.

The 60-minute in-person debate will be streamed on the New Jersey Globe, Facebook Live, X (formerly Twitter), YouTube, and C-SPAN.   The debate will be available to voters through the November general election.

New Jersey Globe Editor David Wildstein will moderate the debate with Micah Rasmussen, the director of the Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics at Rider University.  Additional questions will come from Rider students.

Vote-by-mail ballots go out on September 19.

Booker won a 2013 special election for the Senate following the death of Frank Lautenberg.  He was re-elected in 2014 and 2020.  He was elected mayor of Newark three times.

Murphy is a U.S. Navy veteran and attorney who served as the deputy mayor of Tabernacle.  He won a four-way Republican primary for the Senate seat by four percentage points.

The New Jersey Globe sponsored the lone U.S. Senate debate in 2020 between Booker and Republican Rik Mehta, and the first U.S. Senate debate between Democrat Andy Kim and Republican Curtis Bashaw in 2024.  The New Jersey Globe has sponsored more than 30 debates since 2020.

Last year,  Wildstein and Rasmussen, and the New Jersey Globe and Rider University won a Telly Award for producing the first gubernatorial debate between Democrat Mikie Sherrill and Republican Jack Ciattarelli.  The in-person debate at Rider University attracted a crowd of 1,600 people – the largest debate in state history.

Also in 2025, the New Jersey Globe and Rider University sponsored four gubernatorial primary debates, one for each party in February and May.

Only major party candidates were invited to participate.