Most of New Jersey’s congressional delegation just won new terms last November, but the unfortunate reality of Congress is that the preparation for one’s next re-election battle never really stops, especially when it comes to raising money.
Senator Cory Booker, long a strong fundraiser, is set to lead the Democratic statewide ticket in 2026; at least two House districts, the 7th and the 9th, may host competitive races; and incumbents around the state will be aiming to raise enough money to fend off any potential primary or general election challengers who might emerge.
Here’s a look at the state’s congressional fundraising during the first quarter of 2025; click here for a web version of the New Jersey Globe’s fundraising tracker, or scroll to the bottom of this article for a PDF version.
U.S. Senate (2026): Booker, running for a third term in 2026 and speculated as a possible presidential candidate in 2028, raised a whopping $1,651,651 in the 1st quarter of 2025. And after years of steadily raising money for his re-election campaign next year, Booker has a warchest of $12,405,655, the largest in the state; so far, Booker doesn’t have any declared opponents from either major party.
That first-quarter total, though, does not reflect what was likely to have been an outpouring of donor support for Booker in the wake of his record-breaking 25-hour Senate speech protesting the Trump administration. Booker’s speech began the evening of March 31, but it didn’t begin picking up steam – and national attention – until April 1, after Q1 had ended.
1st district: Still hospitalized for now due to complications from a gallbladder infection, Rep. Donald Norcross (D-Camden) – who hasn’t faced a serious primary or general election contest since he first won his seat in 2014 – raised $123,249 in Q1 and is still sitting on a huge $1,736,521 stockpile. No one from either party has filed to challenge Norcross yet in 2026.
2nd district: Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-Dennis) has largely locked down his once-competitive South Jersey district, though he may have to stay on guard if 2026 becomes a blue wave year like Democrats are hoping. With no declared opponents yet, Van Drew raised $226,758 in the 1st quarter and has $817,295 on-hand to begin the 2026 cycle.
3rd district: Having just won his inaugural term in Congress last year to succeed now-Senator Andy Kim, Rep. Herb Conaway (D-Delran) raised $222,474 in Q1 and has $182,041 on-hand for his first re-election campaign in the Democratic-leaning (but not overwhelmingly so) 3rd district.
Conaway has one declared GOP opponent, nurse Linda McMahon, not to be confused with the U.S. Secretary of Education; McMahon didn’t raise enough in the 1st quarter to necessitate a full FEC report, but she did file a brief statement saying she had raised all of $900 thus far.
4th district: Rep. Chris Smith (R-Manchester) has no declared opponent from either party yet, but there are perennial rumblings in the 4th district that a serious Republican primary challenger could decide to take him on; he has $364,329 to start out the 2026 cycle after raising $60,202 in the first quarter.
5th district: Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-Tenafly), the Human Fundraising Machine, saw his congressional fundraising slow down significantly this quarter as he focuses on his campaign for governor; he raised $258,253, more than half of which came from interest on his existing campaign warchest.
Far more noteworthy, though, is where Gottheimer’s money went. The congressman transferred $9,599,501 to Affordable New Jersey, a (theoretically independent) super PAC that’s been blanketing the airwaves with ads supporting Gottheimer for governor; he still had $11,289,709 left over at the end of Q1, so yet more transfers could be imminent.
The Republican nominee against Gottheimer in 2024, Mary Jo Guinchard, is running again, but she announced her campaign after the Q1 filing deadline had passed. She filed a report saying that she has $690 on-hand; her report also lists $241,039 in debts she owes to herself thanks to personal loans during her last campaign.
6th district: Rep. Frank Pallone (D-Long Branch), the highest-ranking Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, has long been one of New Jersey’s most quietly formidable fundraisers; he raised $398,700 in the 1st quarter and ended with $3,177,555 on-hand.
Pallone does have one declared primary challenger, investment analyst Katie Bansil, who reported raising $7,791 during the first quarter, $4,500 of it self-funded.
7th district: In what should come as no surprise to anyone, the 7th district – originally drawn in 2021 to be the state’s only competitive district – is looking like it will host yet another expensive race in 2026.
Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-Westfield), the seat’s battle-tested incumbent, raised $970,532 – his largest fundraising quarter ever outside of the October of an election year – and has $785,898 in the bank. And one of his Democratic opponents, former Navy helicopter pilot Rebecca Bennett, kicked off her own campaign with an impressive $426,718 first-quarter haul; another Democratic contender, former Summit Councilman Greg Vartan, raised $101,269.
There’s also Michael Garth, a Democrat from Mount Olive who reported self-funding $500 despite having no campaign or online presence that the New Jersey Globe can find.
Bennett and Vartan (and Garth) could end up making up just a small portion of the overall Democratic field, however. In the two months since they entered the race, three other potential candidates have made their interest known, and a fourth, former Forward Party leader Brian Varela, launched a campaign last week, after the Q1 filing deadline.
8th district: After winning an expensive and bitter primary last year following the political downfall of his father, Rep. Rob Menendez (D-Jersey City) raised $150,496 to start out 2025, and has $315,519 on-hand in case any other Democratic primary opponents decide to take him on in the deep-blue 8th district. (None have filed as of now.)
9th district: When she was chosen as a last-minute replacement for the late Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson) on 9th district ballots last year, Rep. Nellie Pou (D-North Haledon) expected she’d have relatively smooth sailing in what was then seen as a safely Democratic seat. But after the district shockingly voted for Trump, Pou is facing pressure to ramp up her political operation in a big way.
The congresswoman raised $351,113 in the first quarter, which is more than most of her New Jersey colleagues but less than many other Democrats in similarly competitive re-election fights; she ended the quarter with $417,096 on-hand.
Fortunately for Pou, though, the lone Republican who’s currently running to beat her is in much more dire financial shape. Billy Prempeh – the nominee for the same seat in 2020, 2022, and 2024 – said when he launched his campaign that he’s aiming to raise far more money than he had for his prior campaigns, but his 1st quarter reports show that he raised only $268 and ended the quarter with a negative cash balance.
10th district: After winning both a special and regularly scheduled election last year to succeed the late Rep. Donald Payne Jr. (D-Newark), Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-Newark) starts out the 2026 cycle without too much to worry about; she raised $65,143 during the first quarter and has $140,620 on-hand.
One prospective opponent, Shana Melius – who finished in sixth place in the 2024 special primary for the same seat – has filed with the FEC, but she hasn’t actually launched a campaign yet and in fact just lost a school board race in Newark last night.
11th district: Much like Gottheimer, Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-Montclair) is focused wholly on her campaign for governor right now, and her congressional campaign .
Sherrill reported raising $21,554 in Q1, most of it through offsets and rebates rather than donations. She also transferred $127,500 to a super PAC supporting her gubernatorial campaign and donated another $24,000 to the Community Food Bank of New Jersey, ridding herself of most of the money given to her by Elon Musk’s SpaceX PAC; she ended the quarter with just $27,158 left.
Of course, if Sherrill wins the governorship, then she won’t need any money at all in her congressional account, and other candidates will have to start building up their own campaigns to succeed her. One would-be Democratic contender, Chatham Borough Councilman Justin Strickland, has filed paperwork for such a hypothetical bid, but he didn’t report raising any money.
12th district: Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing), perhaps the New Jersey House member least in danger of a serious primary or general election challenge, raised $95,883 in Q1 and has $70,777 in the bank.
Watson Coleman’s GOP opponent in both 2022 and 2024, Darius Mayfield, is running for Congress again this cycle – but he’s doing so from his new home in Virginia instead of New Jersey.
U.S. Senate (2030): Senator Andy Kim won his first term in the Senate last year, a long and grueling campaign that brought the former three-term congressman’s warchest well below $1 million. With six years to go until his first re-election campaign in 2030, Kim has begun building that back up, raising $339,381 in Q1 and ending with $808,392 left over.
This story – and spreadsheet – were updated at 4:17 p.m. on April 17 with data from Katie Bansil’s Q1 report, which was filed late, and again at 4:31 p.m. on April 28 with more information on Mary Jo Guinchard’s debt.
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