N.J. members of Congress raised $6.8 million during Q3

New Jersey’s 14 members of Congress raised a total of $6,782,254 during the 3rd quarter of 2023 (which covered July 1 through September 30), and ended the quarter with a collective $47.3 million cash on-hand.

In some cases, representatives in safe districts are simply stockpiling cash; in other cases, particularly the contests for U.S. Senate and the 7th congressional district, multiple challengers are already running and money is flying left and right. Here’s where the financial picture stands in every New Jersey congressional district and both Senate seats.

U.S. Senate (2024): The race for indicted U.S. Senator Bob Menendez’s seat is set to be New Jersey’s highest-profile campaign – by far – in the 2024 cycle. But since the federal bribery charges against Menendez were only made public on September 22, nine days before the end of the 3rd quarter, the financial picture in the race is still very unclear.

Menendez himself raised $919,105 during the 3rd quarter, and has $8,553,019 in his warchest. While the senator has rebuffed widespread calls for his resignation, it’s less clear whether he intends to seek re-election; if he does choose to run, he’d do so with almost no party support.

A day after the charges were released, U.S. Rep. Andy Kim (D-Moorestown) announced he would be running against Menendez in the Democratic primary, and got a colossal fundraising boost as a result. Kim raised a total of $1,174,347 in Q3, most of which came in the final week of the quarter after he’d launched his Senate campaign, and has $1,901,794 on-hand.

Kim is unlikely to remain the sole major Democratic candidate in the race – but for now, he can continue fundraising like gangbusters as the only man trying to take down an allegedly crooked incumbent.

On the GOP side, the frontrunner for the nomination is Mendham Borough Mayor Christine Serrano Glassner, who launched her campaign a couple weeks before the end of Q3 (and just four days before Menendez’s indictment). Her campaign won’t file its first fundraising report until the end of the 4th quarter.

A number of other candidates have also filed with the Federal Election Commission – Kyle Jasey and Larry Hamm for Democrats, Gregg Mele and Dan Cruz for Republicans – but all are likely to have minimal impact on the race. Of the four, only Jasey, the son of Assemblywoman Mila Jasey (D-South Orange), has submitted a Q3 report; he raised $17,405.

1st district: Rep. Donald Norcross (D-Camden) raised $151,912 in the 3rd quarter, and has $1,106,674 in his campaign account. That will be plenty to win re-election in the solidly Democratic 1st district, but if Norcross were to launch a U.S. Senate campaign – which is unlikely but not unthinkable – he’d need to pick up the pace quite a bit. (His brother George, the de facto leader of the South Jersey Democratic organization, could certainly help with that.)

Norcross has one declared Republican opponent: Damon Galdo, the runner-up in last year’s GOP primary for the same district. Galdo raised a total of $5 during Q3, all of which was self-funded, which paints a pretty clear picture of how competitive the 1st district is.

2nd district: Will Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-Dennis) abandon his House seat to run for U.S. Senate in 2024? Van Drew is certainly entertaining the possibility – and he’s fundraising at a solid clip, raising $454,156 in the 3rd quarter and ending with $720,214 cash on-hand.

Back in Van Drew’s 2nd district, four Democrats have already lined up to run in 2024, though one is far ahead on the fundraising game. Tech entrepreneur Joe Salerno entered the race at the end of last quarter with just over $400,000 in self-funding; Salerno didn’t put any more of his own money into the campaign this quarter, but he did raise $121,806 from donors, and has a $418,386 warchest.

The financial picture is less rosy for Salerno’s primary opponents. 2022 nominee Tim Alexander raised $28,589 and has $12,962 left; Carolyn Rush raised $7,186 and has $4,808 left; and Brandon Saffold has not reported raising any money at all. Alexander’s fundraising was also weak during his 2022 race, which he ultimately lost 59%-40%.

Unless something dramatically changes in the coming months, the primary is increasingly looking like Salerno’s to lose. However, given Van Drew’s strengths as an incumbent (assuming he runs for re-election) and the 2nd district’s Republican lean, the general election is unlikely to be a top-tier race.

3rd district: The race for the 3rd district is in total limbo right now; Kim, the incumbent congressman, is running for U.S. Senate, and the one declared Democrat running to succeed him, Assemblywoman Carol Murphy (D-Mount Laurel), entered the race after the last filing deadline.

As for Republicans, former U.S. Senate candidate Shirley Maia-Cusick also joined the race after Q3 ended, but her Senate campaign raised $97,864 during the quarter, most of it self-funded. Thanks to an astonishingly high burn rate, Maia-Cusick had just $4,653 left in the bank, all of which is now transferable to her House campaign. (Minor Republican candidate Greg Sobocinski is running as well, but he’s raised only around $3,000 thus far.)

4th district: Now in his 43rd year in Congress, Rep. Chris Smith (R-Manchester) reported raising $146,333 in the 3rd quarter and has $352,170 in the bank.

Smith doesn’t have a general election threat to worry about in his safely Republican district, but he may want to watch his back – and build up a stronger warchest – in case of a right-wing primary challenge. In 2022, podcaster Mike Crispi held Smith to a 58%-37% primary win in a redrawn district, and other challengers may take a look at the race this year (though none have launched campaigns so far).

5th district: Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-Wyckoff) raised $1,060,195 during Q3 – his third consecutive quarter raising more than a million dollars – and is now sitting on a gargantuan warchest of $15,834,052. That’s more cash than every single other House member from New Jersey has on hand – combined.

Gottheimer won’t need all that money to win re-election next year, since his district is firmly Democratic and he doesn’t even have any declared Republican opponents yet. But as he eyes potential future statewide campaigns, his piles of campaign cash could come in handy.

6th district: After raising $397,225 in the 3rd quarter, Rep. Frank Pallone (D-Long Branch) has the second-best funded House campaign account in the state at $3,050,748. With no GOP challengers yet and a strongly Democratic district, it’s smooth sailing for Pallone in 2024.

7th district: The warchest of Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-Westfield) is looking more formidable with every quarter that goes by. Kean raised $509,080 during Q3 and has $1,774,033 left on-hand; he’ll need every dollar he can get to win re-election in the highly competitive 7th congressional district.

His two declared Democratic opponents, former New Jersey Working Families Party director Sue Altman and former U.S. State Department official Jason Blazakis, both have a lot of catching up to do.

Altman raised $286,362 in the 3rd quarter, and has raised $504,035 total since entering the race last spring; she’s got $362,664 left in her account. Blazakis, meanwhile, raised $194,700 during his first six weeks in the race – $71,600 of which was self-funded – and has $177,774 left.

A third Democratic candidate, Roselle Park Mayor Joe Signorello, dropped out of the race last week; Signorello’s report reveals he raised $131,985, some of which was either self-funded or transferred from his previous U.S. Senate campaign. His exit leaves just Altman and Blazakis, at least for now, to duke it out over the next few months and convince local Democrats that they’re the right candidate to take on Kean.

8th district: Rep. Rob Menendez (D-Jersey City), the son of the indicted senator, may be running into some difficult political headwinds in 2024 thanks to his father’s legal troubles. One potential challenger, Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla, is publicly considering a campaign, and others are watching from the sidelines as well.

With that in mind, Menendez raised a total of $255,547 during the 3rd quarter and has $433,244 left on-hand. That’s a far better quarter for Menendez than the first two of 2023, during which the congressman raised a combined $114,108, but it’s likely not enough to scare off any potential challengers.

9th district: Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson) has declared that he’s running for re-election in 2024, and he’s still fundraising like it. The 86-year-old congressman raised $210,992, which is on par with what he typically raises per quarter, and has $1,445,303 in the bank.

The 9th district’s only declared Republican candidate, threepeat challenger Billy Prempeh, still has not filed fundraising reports with the FEC despite actively soliciting donations – possibly a violation of federal law, unless he’s raised almost nothing. Pascrell also has a mysterious Democratic primary opponent, William Oscar Henry, who submitted candidacy paperwork to the FEC but hasn’t reported raising any money.

10th district: Rep. Donald Payne Jr. (D-Newark) has never been New Jersey’s strongest fundraiser, and that didn’t change this quarter, with the congressman raising $129,495. But Payne represents a safely Democratic district and doesn’t seem to be under much threat of a primary challenge, so his $108,168 on-hand is still likely enough to get him re-elected.

11th district: ​​After an expensive 2022 race that depleted her cash reserves, Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-Montclair) is lifting herself back up, raising $515,752 during the 3rd quarter of this year. She now has a warchest of $1,372,103 and no Republican opponents on the horizon in her now-solidly Democratic district – though, as with Gottheimer, her cash could be helpful in any future bids for higher office.

12th district: It was another modest quarter for Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing), who raised $108,616 and has $140,904 in her warchest.

That will be plenty for the safe-district congresswoman, who is facing a rematch against 2022 GOP challenger Darius Mayfield. Mayfield raised $5,590 during the 3rd quarter and has just $3,404 left due to a very high burn rate.

U.S. Senate (2026): U.S. Senator Cory Booker won’t come before voters again for another three years, but he’s still raising more money than almost anyone else in the state. Booker raised $749,499 during the 3rd quarter and has amassed a warchest of $10,458,128.

Booker has always been a strong fundraiser, dating back to his days in Newark city politics. Today marks the 10-year anniversary of his jump to federal office, when he won the 2013 U.S. Senate special election to succeed the late Senator Frank Lautenberg.

This story was updated at 7:36 p.m. to correct a miscalculation that undershot several fundraising totals, particularly those of Reps. Chris Smith and Jeff Van Drew.