Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-Wyckoff), the Human Fundraising Machine, has a Muresanian $18,120,288 cash-on-hand after elasticating his warchest with a behemothic $1,366,027 fundraising haul during the first three months of 2024.
The Bergen County congressman and possible candidate for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination next year has now raised a commanding $6.2 million since January 2023 as he prepares to seek a fifth term in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Since launching his bid to unseat seven-term Rep. Scott Garrett (R-Wantage) in March 2015, Gottheimer has raised over $34.6 million, not including monies for his leadership PAC and other Democratic candidates.
A former Clinton White House speechwriter, Gottheimer unseated Garrett in 2016 by 14,897 votes, 51%-47%, in a district that Donald Trump won by one point. Gottheimer became the first Democrat to win New Jersey’s 5th district in 36 years.
The district remained competitive enough that Trump still won 47% in 2020. Gottheimer ran one point ahead of Joe Biden against a former Wall Street banker who put $1.5 million of his own money into the race; Gottheimer won by 31,842 votes.
Redistricting made the 5th more Democratic in 2022 when staunchly Republican towns in Warren County were replaced by new Democratic areas of Bergen County. The new lines would have meant a 12-point win for Biden. That gave Gottheimer a solid 10-point victory in a rematch with Pallotta, who did not spend much of his own money in 2022.
In that race, Gottheimer helped create some of his own luck, spending money to communicate with Republicans in a way that boosted Pallotta over a primary opponent viewed as a stronger general election candidate: Nick De Gregorio, a U.S. Marine combat veteran.
Unopposed in the Democratic primary, Gottheimer will face the winner of a two-candidate Republican primary between Mary Jo Guinchard, a former mayor of Tuxedo Park, New York, who has lost two races for Bergen County Commissioner, and Paramus school board member George Song.
As co-chairman of the House Problem Solvers Caucus and seats on the Financial Services and Intelligence committees, Gottheimer has become an influential figure on Capitol Hill. He’s also part of Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries’ inner circle.