Nick De Gregorio scored a massive victory at the Bergen County Republican convention on Wednesday, defeating Frank Pallotta by a 302-116 vote, a 69%-27% victory to get the organization line in the largest county in New Jersey’s 5th district.
Businessman Fred Schneiderman finished third with 15 votes (3%), and Sab Skenderi received 3 votes.
Under a new congressional map approved by the New Jersey Congressional Redistricting Commission in December, about three-quarters of the Republican primary voters in the 5th vote in Bergen County.
A U.S. Marine Corps combat veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, De Gregorio is seeking to challenge three-term Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-Wyckoff).
“I am honored beyond words to have received overwhelming support from the place I have called home for my entire life. For months, our campaign of grassroots supporters has worked tirelessly to earn the votes of the Bergen County Committee through hundreds of hours of door knocking and phone calls,” De Gregorio said. “Both our success tonight and the enormous turnout at the Convention point to the kind of momentum that will fuel our campaign to victory in the primary and ultimately against Josh Gottheimer this fall.”
Pallotta, a former investment banker who ran against Gottheimer in 2020, has the organization line in Passaic County and will run on a slate in Sussex County with Sheriff Michael Strada and county commissioner candidates Jill Space and Bill Hayden.
Two years ago, Bergen Republicans gave their line to former Cresskill Councilman John McCann. Pallotta defeated McCann by 9,614 votes, 52%-32%, in a four-way primary after carrying Passaic, Sussex and Warren counties and holding McCann to a 1,258 vote, 46%-41% win in Bergen.
Gottheimer, the Human Fundraising Machine, reported having over $12 million in the bank as of the end of last year. He defeated Pallotta by 31,842 votes in the last election, 53%-46%.
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