Good morning, New Jersey! Welcome to Primary Day 2026!

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Good morning, New Jersey. The polls are open from now until 8 p.m.; after an election season unlike any other, a phrase that has become increasingly clichéd but no less accurate, it’s finally Primary Day.

The state’s two marquee contests are Democratic primaries in the 7th district, where Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-Westfield) is heavily threatened in his bid for a third term, and the 12th district, where Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing) is retiring after 12 years in Washington.

Four Democrats are hoping to unseat Kean: former Navy helicopter pilot Rebecca Bennett, ICU doctor Tina Shah, businessman Brian Varela, and former Small Business Administration official Michael Roth. Bennett seems to have an edge, having raised more money than the rest of the field and led in every publicly available poll, but late spending against her from a super PAC that likely has ties to Republicans has thrown a wrench in the race and made it into more of a nationally watched affair.

Next door in the 12th district, all signs point towards the frontrunner being Adam Hamawy, a plastic surgeon and Army veteran who’s benefited from huge amounts of left-wing outside money. But a bumper crop of other Democrats – among them activist Sue Altman, Somerset County Commissioner Shanel Robinson, Assemblywoman Verlina Reynolds-Jackson, East Brunswick Mayor Brad Cohen, Plainfield Mayor Adrian Mapp, Princeton professor Sam Wang, former Energy Department official Jay Vaingankar, and attorney Squire Servance – are vying for the nod as well.

Democrats also have a four-way primary in Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-Dennis)’s 2nd district, a reach opportunity for them this year, and a head-to-head race between Rep. Rob Menendez (D-Jersey City) and former Jersey City school board president Mussab Ali in the 8th district, two years after Menendez overcame a similar challenge from the left.

For Republicans, the two biggest contests of the night will be for U.S. Senate – one of four lesser-known Republicans will lead the party’s ticket this year against Cory Booker – and for the 9th district, where attorney Tiffany Burress and Clifton Councilwoman Rosie Pino both want to unseat freshman Rep. Nellie Pou (D-North Haledon).

Further downballot, Democratic organizations face serious threats to their hold on countywide offices in Passaic, Mercer, Cumberland, and Essex Counties; dozens of municipalities will hold primaries as well, including in big towns like Elizabeth and Piscataway.

This year marked the first federal election cycle in New Jersey in which both parties used office-block ballots with no county lines, making for an unusually competitive election season right up until the end. In a prior era, some contests might have ended, or at least been whittled down, once county parties made their endorsements, but few candidates are willing to defer to that kind of thing anymore.

Filling the gap, though, was a huge influx of super PAC money unlike anything New Jersey has seen before. Outside groups have spent more than $12 million on the 2026 primaries, most of which flowed into the 7th and 12th districts and the special Democratic primary for the 11th district earlier this year.

Candidates who haven’t benefited from that wave of spending have argued that it’s the voters who ultimately matter, not the money or the endorsements that we in the press like to cover. They’re, literally, correct: you, the voters of New Jersey, have it in your power to decide who gets elected to public office in New Jersey this year, and who does not.

Happy voting!