Pou raises $351k in Q1 for first re-election campaign

Freshman Rep. Nellie Pou (D-North Haledon), by all accounts the most vulnerable Democratic incumbent in New Jersey heading into the 2026 midterms, raised $351,113 during the first quarter of 2025 and ended the quarter with $417,096 on hand – lower totals than some of her fellow swing-district representatives, but certainly higher than her underfunded GOP opposition so far.

Pou first ran for Congress last year after Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson) died; a longtime state legislator representing Paterson, she was chosen by local Democrats to replace Pascrell on the general election ballot after a harried one-week internal process. Her general election contest against Republican Billy Prempeh was supposed to be an easy one, and neither side raised or spent huge amounts of money – but Pou only ended up winning 51%-46% as Donald Trump shockingly carried the district.

Now, as she gears up to run for a second term, Pou faces far more scrutiny than she ever has before in her political career – and part of that involves pressure to fundraise, something that Pou never had to seriously focus on during her nearly 30-year stint in the legislature.

Compared to other past first-term New Jersey representatives from swing districts, Pou’s Q1 report is on the low end. GOP Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-Westfield) raised $831,271 in the first quarter of 2023, while Democratic Reps. Tom Malinowski (D-Ringoes), Andy Kim (D-Moorestown), and Mikie Sherrill (D-Montclair) all raised around $550,000 in the first quarter of 2019.

Then again, unlike Pou, all four of those members came into Congress having flipped swing districts and knowing how to raise colossal amounts of money; Pou, on the other hand, has had to start from scratch.

And fortunately for Pou, it’s not like 9th district Republicans are raking in cash, either. Prempeh is running again and currently has the Republican field to himself; he said when he launched his campaign that he’ll aim to raise far more money than he had for his prior bids, but his FEC report shows that he raised just $268 during the first month of his campaign and ended the quarter with a negative cash-on-hand balance.

This story was updated at 10:19 a.m. on April 16 with details on Prempeh’s FEC report.