As the 2026 midterms begin in earnest, New Jersey is gearing up for at least three intense Democratic primaries: one happening this Thursday in the special election for Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s 11th district, and two more in June in Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-Westfield)’s 7th district and retiring Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing)’s 12th district.
Candidates in those seats have all had to kick their fundraising into gear, some with more success than others, per Federal Election Commission reports due on Saturday night. And in less-closely watched races, politicians of both parties hoping to score upsets generally fell well short of the incumbents they’re hoping to unseat.
(One other thing worth noting: the FEC is currently closed thanks to the partial government shutdown that began over the weekend, limiting its regulatory and enforcement work – though the body was already fairly toothless on that front anyways because of the lack of a quorum on its board of commissioners.)
Here’s a look at New Jersey fundraising in the 4th quarter of 2025, which covers the period from October 1 through December 31. 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): Republicans only have a short while to field a candidate against Senator Cory Booker, with the first county conventions coming up in just a couple of weeks. Their one declared candidate, former Tabernacle Committeeman and frequent congressional candidate Justin Murphy, reported raising just $3,016 in the 4th quarter.
That’s a little bit less than Booker, who raised $1,299,859 and is sitting on $21,904,744, a huge warchest swollen with the cash he raised during his 25-hour marathon Senate speech. Booker has a progressive primary opponent in Chris Fields, but Fields said he hadn’t reached the $5,000 FEC reporting threshold as of the end of the year.
1st district: Rep. Donald Norcross (D-Camden), who represents South Jersey’s bluest district, raised $152,462 in the 4th quarter and had $1,983,772 on-hand at the end of the year.
His lone GOP opponent so far, Damon Galdo, said he had not yet raised $5,000. Norcross also has a Democratic primary challenger, Lonnie Affrime, but he didn’t kick off his campaign until after the Q4 filing deadline.
2nd district: Democrats have some distant hopes of turning South Jersey’s 2nd congressional district into a top race this year, but Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-Dennis) will have quite a bit of money to fend off whomever Democrats end up nominating, raising $233,641 in Q4 and amassing a $1,182,931 warchest.
His best-funded Democratic opponent by far is Bayly Winder, who came relatively close to Van Drew in Q4 fundraising – he raised $141,065, consistent with his prior two quarters – and ended the year with $231,462 on-hand.
That’s far better than Democratic primary rival Tim Alexander, who struggled with fundraising during both his 2022 and 2024 campaigns and seems to be doing so once again; Alexander raised just $20,151 during the 4th quarter and had $7,800 left in his campaign account. A third Democratic contender, Terri Reese, raised $6,275, while Bill Finn has yet to file any fundraising reports at all.
3rd district: Rep. Herb Conaway (D-Delran), suddenly facing a crowded field of GOP foes for his Democratic-leaning district, raised $104,495 in Q4 and now has $365,978 on-hand.
Only one of those GOP foes, Jason Cullen, has reported receiving any donations so far, raising $34,190 in the 4th quarter and quickly spending most of it. Michael McGuire reported raising exactly $0, and Justin Barbera did not file a Q4 report.
4th district: Rep. Chris Smith (R-Manchester), already New Jersey’s longest-serving congressman and now running for a 24th term, raised $89,352 in Q4 and has $412,424 on-hand.
If Smith were to ever lose in his deep-red district, it would likely be to a fellow Republican, but he’s got President Donald Trump’s endorsement this cycle and isn’t likely to be in much danger of a primary upset; one GOP challenger, Rob Canfield, got in the race after the Q4 filing deadline.
Plenty of Democrats – Julie Flynn, John Blake, Rachel Peace, Bob English, and Peter Linardakis – are interested in running against Smith, but none of them have reported raising a single cent thus far.
5th district: Returning to his roots as the Human Fundraising Machine, Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-Tenafly) raised $1,056,472 in the 4th quarter – by far the most of any New Jersey House candidate – and now has a $10,295,486 warchest. (Gottheimer once had as much as $22 million on hand, but much of that was expended during last year’s gubernatorial campaign.)
Gottheimer’s North Jersey district is competitive on paper, but Republicans aren’t acting like it. One Republican, Sean Kirrane, hasn’t filed any fundraising reports. Another, Sandy Gajapathy, reported self-funding $50,000 before submitting a filing terminating her campaign; Gajapathy said she is still in fact running for the seat and is setting up a different campaign committee, but the FEC does not seem to have a record of that new committee.
6th district: Facing a trio of challengers (but unlikely to lose to any of them), long-serving Rep. Frank Pallone (D-Long Branch) raised $279,624 in the 4th quarter and still has $3,125,719 in the bank.
Two Democrats are hoping to unseat him in the June primary: John Hsu, who raised $9,335 in Q4, and Katie Bansil, who hasn’t yet filed her 4th quarter report. Hillary Herzig, the one Republican hoping to flip the long-Democratic district, personally contributed her campaign’s sole donation of $1,600.
7th district: See here for details on fundraising in Rep. Tom Kean Jr.’s 7th district.
8th district: Rep. Rob Menendez (D-Jersey City) raised $212,231 in the 4th quarter and has $709,243 on-hand – and now, thanks to a newly launched Democratic primary challenge, he may have to use most or all of it this year to defend his deep-blue seat.
Because Menendez’s challenger, former Jersey City school board president Mussab Ali, entered the race after the Q4 filing deadline, his fundraising may remain a mystery for the months to come; it would only take one very strong quarter, though, to catch up to Menendez.
9th district: Much like in the 8th district, the financial picture in the 9th district will remain murky for a little while longer thanks to a late-arriving candidate.
Rep. Nellie Pou (D-North Haledon), who is on national GOP target lists in her Trump-won district, raised $427,587 in the 4th quarter and has $1,319,795 on-hand to defend herself. One of her Republican challengers, Clifton Councilwoman Rosie Pino, raised $102,276 and has just $41,621 left, a dangerously low sum for a swing-district House candidate.
But Pino likely isn’t the favorite for the GOP nomination anymore thanks to the entrance of new challenger Tiffany Burress, who launched her campaign after Q4 ended (and was rapidly endorsed by all three of the district’s GOP chairmen). Another erstwhile GOP challenger, Billy Prempeh, suspended his campaign in December; he reported raising just $6,718 in the 4th quarter.
10th district: Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-Newark) raised $405,157 in Q4 and had $656,333 left over; much of that will have to go towards the legal team defending her from federal assault charges, whom she paid close to $300,000 in October and November.
The Republican she defeated twice in a row in 2024, Carmen Bucco, is back once again in the prohibitively blue district, but he hasn’t reported raising any money yet.
11th district: See here for details on fundraising in the special election to replace Gov. Mikie Sherrill in the 11th district. In addition to the candidates running in the special election, there is also Democrat Joseph Lewis, who has reported raising $435 to run in the regularly scheduled election.
12th district: See here for details on fundraising in retiring Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman’s 12th district.
U.S. Senate (2030): Senator Andy Kim, still nearly five years away from his next re-election campaign, raised $132,545 in Q4 and has $1,150,428 on-hand.
Far more interesting are the reports filed by his predecessor, ex-Senator and now-prison inmate Bob Menendez; Menendez, who used millions of dollars in campaign money to pay for his legal defense, paid his lawyers another $320,000 in October, and his campaign account now has just $7,617 left.