With 3rd quarter fundraising reports due to the Federal Election Commission on Tuesday, the financial picture in New Jersey’s congressional races has come into focus – and Democrats are looking strong across the board.
In 12 of the 13 House and Senate races on the ballot in New Jersey this year, Democratic candidates raised more money in July, August, and September than their Republican opponents. That includes two Republican-held districts, Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-Westfield)’s 7th district and Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-Dennis)’s 2nd district, though both Kean and Van Drew retained a substantial cash-on-hand advantage for the final weeks of the campaign. And in every district that Democrats currently control, Democratic incumbents and nominees are far outstripping their Republican challengers.
The contest between Kean and Democrat Sue Altman is likely to be highly competitive this November, and both sides are raising millions of dollars; the only other race in the state attracting that kind of money is the campaign for U.S. Senate between Rep. Andy Kim (D-Moorestown) and Republican Curtis Bashaw.
Here’s a detailed look at the fundraising data in each of New Jersey’s congressional contests.
Scroll to the bottom of this story for a spreadsheet with fundraising data in every race.
U.S. Senate (2024): Andy Kim vs. Curtis Bashaw
During his three terms representing a competitive district in the House, and the few months he spent running an underdog anti-machine primary campaign for the U.S. Senate, Andy Kim developed serious fundraising skills out of sheer necessity. He’s now the clear frontrunner for the seat held until recently by embattled former Senator Bob Menendez, but his fundraising hasn’t slowed down.
Kim raised $2,392,968 during the 3rd quarter, and even after spending nearly $2.5 million still had $3,983,129 left in his campaign warchest (though that number, like all cash-on-hand numbers, is as of September 30 and thus may be out of date by now). Since the beginning of the 2023-2024 cycle, Kim has raised a total of $11,388,210, the most of any New Jersey congressional candidate this cycle.
His Republican opponent, Curtis Bashaw, raised $1,183,050 during the same period, spent $930,540, and went into the last month of the campaign with $1,333,792 left to spend. Bashaw has raised just under $4 million in total for his campaign, around half of which came from his own fortune (he’s a successful developer and hotelier).
As for Menendez, who resigned from the Senate in August following his conviction on federal corruption charges, his (still-active) campaign account had just $1.5 million left after a year spent paying for Menendez’s exorbitant legal fees.
1st district: Donald Norcross (inc) vs. Teddy Liddell
In 2022, Rep. Donald Norcross (D-Camden) raised and spent millions of dollars to ensure that he wouldn’t get caught sleeping if a red wave year materialized. This year, he’s taken no similar precautions; he raised $219,368 in the 3rd quarter and is still sitting on $1,843,642 with no obvious interest in spending it on his re-election campaign in the deep-blue 1st district.
That may be in part because his Republican opponent, Teddy Liddell, has barely raised anything at all. Liddell raised $12,408 in Q3, around two-thirds of which was self-funded, and had just $1,649 left in the bank.
2nd district: Jeff Van Drew (inc) vs. Joe Salerno
When Democratic tech entrepreneur Joe Salerno put down $400,000 of his own money to kick off his 2nd district campaign last summer, it was clear he would be a more financially proficient candidate than the previous nominee for the seat, Tim Alexander. And in the 3rd quarter of this year, Salerno actually managed to outraise incumbent Jeff Van Drew, $464,545 to $434,224.
However, there are two big asterisks to that achievement. One is that around $200,000 of Salerno’s haul was self-funded, while all of Van Drew’s came from donors; the other is that Van Drew still had a huge advantage over Salerno in cash-on-hand, $1,184,555 to $404,728. That means that, if he chooses to, Van Drew can go through the last month of the campaign heavily outspending Salerno.
The Republican-leaning 2nd district is not seen as an especially competitive race, and Van Drew is likely to win by a solid margin. But Salerno’s fundraising abilities – he raised nearly as much in the last quarter as Alexander did during his entire 2022 campaign – mean that South Jersey Democrats at least have a viable contender on their slate this year.
3rd district: Herb Conaway vs. Rajesh Mohan
For three cycles in a row, the 3rd district hosted one of the most expensive races in the state, with Andy Kim flipping the district in 2018 and holding onto it against self-funding Republicans in 2020 and 2022. That’s very much not the case this year.
Assemblyman Herb Conaway (D-Delran), the Democratic nominee to succeed Kim this year, raised $384,838 in Q3 and still had $317,990 left on-hand; he’s raised $1,133,139 overall since launching his campaign. (Conaway was also the beneficiary of substantial outside spending during the Democratic primary, though no outside groups have yet seen the need to spend on the general election.)
Conaway’s fundraising totals aren’t massive, but his Republican foe, cardiologist Rajesh Mohan, raised far less: $74,111 during the 3rd quarter, $50,000 of it self-funded, with $81,826 left on-hand. The 3rd district is Democratic-leaning even in the best of circumstances for Republicans, and Mohan’s lackluster fundraising further demonstrates the party’s inability to turn this year’s race into a top-tier contest.
4th district: Chris Smith (inc) vs. Matt Jenkins
Nothing to see here in the 4th district, by far New Jersey’s most conservative district: Rep. Chris Smith (R-Manchester) raised $84,678 in Q3 and had a $458,612 warchest, while Democrat Matt Jenkins raised $24,203 and had $20,981 left.
5th district: Josh Gottheimer (inc) vs. Mary Jo Guinchard
Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-Tenafly)’s astonishing fundraising abilities have become the stuff of legend in New Jersey, and he didn’t let up this quarter: the four-term congressman raised $1,280,014 and now has a warchest of $20.3 million.
That is, needless to say, a bit more money than his Republican opponent, Mary Jo Guinchard, has on-hand. Guinchard raised $182,730 during the 3rd quarter, nearly three-quarters of which was self-funded, and had $143,627 left in her account. The light-blue 5th district is in theory the most competitive New Jersey district currently held by a Democrat, but Guinchard’s fundraising has not given Gottheimer very much to worry about.
It’s widely expected that, once this year’s race is over, Gottheimer will enter the 2025 race for governor – but Gottheimer has seemingly decided to eschew the strategy many expected from him, which was to use the fortune in his federal campaign account to blanket the airwaves this year and boost his name ID. Gottheimer only spent $414,271 in the 3rd quarter, though he did recently go on the air with a new TV ad.
6th district: Frank Pallone (inc) vs. Scott Fegler
Rep. Frank Pallone (D-Long Branch) should be all set for re-election in the solidly Democratic 6th district, but he still raised $570,446 in the 3rd quarter and had $3,508,763 on-hand; Republican challenger Scott Fegler raised $36,939 and had $15,691 left.
7th district: Tom Kean Jr. (inc) vs. Sue Altman
The race for the 7th district, New Jersey’s one truly competitive congressional district, has (as expected) gotten extremely expensive, and 3rd quarter fundraising reports included some good news for both Republican incumbent Tom Kean Jr. and Democratic challenger Sue Altman.
The good news for Altman: she massively outraised Kean during the 3rd quarter, raising $2,137,128 to his $1,137,302 – a striking feat given that Kean is an incumbent and Altman is a first-time candidate. Altman’s fundraising edge has allowed her to blast the airwaves throughout the fall with a series of ads promoting her record and bashing Kean’s.
The good news for Kean: Altman is burning through money extremely fast, so much so that she may be facing a cash crunch for the final weeks of the campaign. Altman had just $1,413,856 left in her warchest at the end of September – and has spent even more since then – while Kean still had $2,812,640.
What’s still unknown is how outside groups will behave in the remaining 19 days of the race. GOP super PACs have spent $3 million and counting to support Kean so far, allowing him to conserve much of his own money for the final stretch; Altman has not gotten any equivalent support from Democratic groups, though that could change at any moment.
8th district: Rob Menendez (inc) vs. Anthony Valdes
Rep. Rob Menendez (D-Jersey City), after winning an extremely competitive and expensive primary against Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla earlier this year, knows that he’s safe for re-election in the deep-blue 8th district, and he’s fundraising like it.
Menendez raised $126,067 in the 3rd quarter, and ended the quarter with $258,247 in his campaign account; Republican challenger Anthony Valdes raised $4,987 and had $3,026 left.
9th district: Nellie Pou vs. Billy Prempeh
After being chosen in August in a whirlwind process to replace the late Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson) on 9th district general election ballots, State Sen. Nellie Pou (D-North Haledon) had to build up a functional campaign in record time. Based on her fundraising, she’s done a fairly good job.
Pou raised $271,440 in just one month of campaigning, and she held onto nearly all of it for the final stretch of the race, recently going up with a six-figure digital ad buy. Her Republican opponent, Billy Prempeh, raised just $13,317 and had $6,803 left – even though, unlike Pou, he had the entire three-month quarter to raise money.
Pascrell’s campaign account, meanwhile, is still sitting on a large pot of money: $1,077,042, to be precise. The account spent almost none of it during the 3rd quarter, and it remains to be seen how it will be used now that Pascrell has died.
10th district: LaMonica McIver (inc) vs. Carmen Bucco
Due to the timing of the special election for the late Rep. Donald Payne Jr. (D-Newark)’s seat, candidates for the dark-blue 10th congressional district don’t have to file on the same schedule as everyone else, so we won’t know how much brand-new Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-Newark) and Republican Carmen Bucco raised in recent months until tomorrow.
The candidates have, however, filed fundraising reports that cover the period between July 1 and August 29, or around two-thirds of the 3rd quarter. During that period, McIver raised $309,611 and ended with $51,449 in her account, while Bucco raised $1,648 and had $9,482 left.
11th district: Mikie Sherrill (inc) vs. Joseph Belnome
Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-Montclair) is another prospective candidate for governor in 2025, and she’s clearly trying to put herself out there as much as possible during her current (non-competitive) congressional race.
Sherrill raised a sizable $858,019 during the 3rd quarter; more importantly, she also spent a whopping $1,543,257 on TV ads and other campaign materials, leaving her with $998,421 in the bank. (A super PAC allied with Sherrill has raised another $1.7 million since being created last year.)
Republican Joe Belnome, by contrast, raised $43,115 and had $179,510 left on hand. Sherrill should have little trouble defeating him in a district she won in 2022 by 19 percentage points, so her heavy spending is likely coming with another election in mind.
12th district: Bonnie Watson Coleman (inc) vs. Darius Mayfield
As usual, there was little fundraising action in the solidly Democratic 12th district this quarter; Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing) raised $124,832 and had $206,099 left in her account, while Republican Darius Mayfield raised $15,594 and had $8,224 left.
U.S. Senate (2026): Cory Booker (inc)
Senator Cory Booker, who won’t be on the ballot again for another two years, raised $929,311 in the 3rd quarter; he’s built up a ginormous $11,866,455 warchest, which could go a long way towards deterring any serious challengers of either party heading into the 2026 elections.