Republicans have dropped their challenge to the independent candidacy of an anti-abortion leader who challenged Joe Biden in the 2024 Democratic presidential primary in New Jersey.
Terrisa Bukovinac will remain on the ballot in November in New Jersey’s 9th district against Rep. Nellie Pou (D-North Haledon) and Republican Rosie Pino, a Clifton city councilwoman, under the slogan “Save Our Babies.”
Pino’s campaign manager, Kennith Gonzalez, had challenged the legitimacy of Bukovinac’s nominating petitions and was scheduled to appear before an administrative law judge this morning. Bukovinac, a resident of Ellendale, Tennessee, had obtained 459 signatures – 209 more than she needed to qualify; Gonzalez had challenged the authenticity of 229 of them and would have needed to prevail in over 90% of his objections.
“We just don’t see her as a serious enough candidate to spend the day fighting it like yesterday,” said Gonzalez. “Time today better spent on continuing to unite the party and making sure we are focused on Nellie Pou.”
On Tuesday, Bukovinac’s husband, anti-abortion leader and former presidential candidate Randall Terry, withdrew as a candidate in the 7th district. His issue was that he had also filed to run for Congress in Hawaii, potentially in violation of a law prohibiting a candidate from running in more than one district.
Bukovinac, a self-described atheist, has never lived in New Jersey and has no strong ties to the state.
Yesterday, Administrative Law Judge Andrew Baron tossed the petitions of independent Diomedes Minaya from the 9th district ballot after enough of his signatures were invalidated to bring him four below the 250 he needed to run. Minaya has run for local office in Passaic twelve times without success.
This story was updated at 9:32 AM with a comment from Gonzalez.
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