Sue Altman, progressive rabble-rouser turned Democratic standard-bearer, announces run for NJ-12

A few years ago, when she was still the rabble-rousing state director of the New Jersey Working Families Party, the phrase “Congresswoman Sue Altman” likely would have been greeted with laughter by most of the movers and shakers of New Jersey politics.

That was before Altman clinched the 2024 Democratic nomination for the 7th congressional district, raised over $6 million, and, after eventually losing to Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-Westfield), became the state director for brand-new Senator Andy Kim. Today, Altman is launching the next phase of her political career: running to succeed Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing) in the 12th district.

It will be an entirely different kind of campaign than in 2024; rather than a year-and-a-half marathon in a wealthy swing district, Altman will now have to win a four-month Democratic primary sprint in a majority-minority, deep-blue seat with more than a dozen other Democrats already running. She’ll also have to work to convince a massive array of Central Jersey Democrats that she, despite not originally being from the district, is the best fit to represent it in Congress.

But there’s little question that Altman’s entry reshapes the unsettled race for the 12th district, and she said she’s ready to prove her worth to a whole new set of voters.

“I’ve worked as an organizer, I’ve worked as someone who’s pushed the Democratic Party,” Altman said. “This is a fairly safe-blue seat, which means the person who represents this district needs to be someone who’s going to be willing to lead and push when needed. I don’t think anyone else in the race has that combination of experience, vision, and fight the way that I do.”

Altman said that her campaign will focus on combating the Trump administration’s threats to democracy and fostering a stronger Democratic Party that can thrive once President Donald Trump himself is gone. Every Democrat running for the 12th district, among them five locally elected Democratic officials, is likely to run on a message of fighting Trump – but Altman said Democrats need to also have ideas of how to rebuild the country from there.

“People are fed up with the status quo,” she said of her many Democratic primary opponents. “So I have a hard time imagining that candidates who tend to be born of the status quo are going to be able to persuade voters that they are outsiders when the time comes.”

The 43-year-old Altman, who grew up in Hunterdon County and briefly pursued a pro basketball career, got her start in New Jersey politics very much as an outsider. As the leader of the New Jersey branch of the progressive Working Families Party, she tussled with party bosses and waged what was then a lonely battle to end the county line ballot design system; at one point, her activism against a tax break bill got her dramatically thrown out of a legislative committee room by the State Police.

“I have spent a lot of time in Trenton; our Working Families offices were in Trenton,” Altman said. “Heck, I’ve even been arrested in Trenton. How many candidates can say that?”

In 2023, she launched her first campaign for elected office, aiming to flip back the congressional seat that Democratic Rep. Tom Malinowski had lost the year before. After spending years warring with the state’s political system, Altman proved herself adept at maneuvering it, ultimately winning the Democratic primary uncontested and earning the trust of many of the party leaders she once spurned.

Unusually for a swing-district candidate, Altman remained a relatively committed progressive throughout the campaign, though she did back away from some past comments on defunding the police and struck a friendly tone towards the U.S.-Israel relationship. Nonetheless, Republicans branded her as too progressive for the district, and she lost 52% to 46%.

“The NRCC and Elon Musk spent millions of dollars calling me ‘too radical’ for the 7th,” Altman said. “If I meet middle schoolers anywhere in Central Jersey and they figure out who I am, they’ll immediately start calling me Radical Sue Altman and giving me high fives.”

That sets up an interesting pivot in the 12th district: the progressivism that was once seen as a liability for Altman is now set to be an asset, and in fact she’s likely to be far from the most progressive candidate in the race. Altman said she remains who she always was – “it is a different campaign, but I’m the same person” – but that she’ll likely shift some of her messaging to better reflect her new district, focusing more on economic populism and pro-democracy policies.

(As for Israel, a potential third rail in the 12th district campaign – the pro-Palestine Watson Coleman herself said it was her one red line when it comes to supporting a potential successor – Altman said she’s “re-evaluating” her position and will have more to say in the future.)

Altman’s 7th district campaign also taught her in the dark arts of fundraising, which will be a critical skill in the few hectic months before the June 2 Democratic primary. Most of the 16 Democrats currently running for the 12th district have lagged in fundraising, with the best-funded so far being East Brunswick Mayor Brad Cohen, who raised a little under $300,000 during his first six weeks in the race; Altman, by contrast, raised more than $6 million throughout her 2024 campaign, though that was of course in a very different context.

Shortly after her loss, Altman took a top role on Kim’s staff, which she said gave her a statewide perspective on what New Jerseyans need and how the Trump administration has affected them; she departed her state director position last month. Kim has also been building a robust political network of his own throughout the state, endorsing allied Democrats in a variety of contested primaries.

During her run for the 7th district, Altman lived in Lambertville, not far from the 12th district. She said she’ll now move to her longtime boyfriend’s home in Bridgewater – a house that’s still in the 7th district rather than the 12th, though Bridgewater is split between the two districts and Altman said she’ll be very close to the boundary.

It remains to be seen how local party leaders will react to Altman’s district switch; some of them already know her from her prior campaign, but they also have hometown candidates competing for their support. Altman said she intends to “enthusiastically” compete at every county convention, but added that she didn’t believe winning any of them would be critical to a primary victory.

The 12th district itself is a fascinating cross-section of the state, spanning four counties from Trenton to Plainfield and including dozens of distinct communities. Watson Coleman, the first Black woman to represent New Jersey in Congress, was preceded by Rush Holt, a white male physicist; the field to replace Watson Coleman now includes white, Black, Asian, Hispanic, and Arab American candidates hailing from every corner of the district, sporting all sorts of different professional backgrounds, and ranging in age from 28 to 71.

Altman’s mission, she said, will be to bring the diverse district together under a shared message of re-energizing the Democratic Party and reclaiming the mantle of leadership in Washington.

“We need someone who can build back the coalition of the Democratic Party to make our party strong again – to rebuild the party, rebuild the government, and rebuild the country,” she said. “I want to be at the table when that happens.”