State Sen. Nellie Pou (D-North Haledon), the unexpected last-minute Democratic nominee for New Jersey’s 9th congressional district, is off to a solid financial start, raising $271,440 in her first month as a congressional candidate.
Pou spent just $14,723 during the same period, and began October with more than $250,000 left in the bank for the final stretch of the campaign.
A longtime state legislator representing Paterson, Pou was chosen by local party leaders at the end of August to replace the late Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson) on the general election ballot in the 9th district. Pascrell had died just eight days before the deadline to finalize ballots, resulting in a compressed and chaotic selection process that saw Pou beat out several other local Democrats from Passaic County for the Democratic nomination.
Pou’s victory required her to build up a general election campaign in extremely short order – and she seems to have gotten help from allies in the Democratic Party both in New Jersey and nationwide. Her campaign’s donation list is full of fellow New Jersey legislators, and it also features a number of notable national Democratic figures like House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar, the highest-ranking Latino in Congress.
If elected, Pou would be the first-ever Latina to represent New Jersey in Congress, a milestone that was a major selling point for her campaign after Pascrell died.
First, though, she has to defeat Republican Billy Prempeh, who lost 55%-44% to Pascrell in 2022. Prempeh, for his part, reported raising $13,317 in the 3rd quarter of this year; despite running for the district essentially non-stop since losing in 2022, Prempeh has only raised a little under $30,000 in total for his campaign.