The 4th quarter of 2023 was a big quarter in New Jersey politics. Senator Bob Menendez was federally indicted shortly before the quarter began, setting off a chain reaction of political upheaval that has enveloped the race for his own Senate seat and at least two congressional districts, making for the most hectic primary season New Jersey has seen in decades.
And with political upheaval comes lots of political money. New Jersey’s congressional candidates raised a collective $12.6 million between October 1 and December 31, more than half of which was raised by just three people. At the beginning of 2024, the state’s dozens of candidates had a total of more than $54 million in their campaign accounts.
Here’s where the financial picture for New Jersey’s 12 congressional districts and two Senate seats stands – or, more accurately, where it stood a month ago. (Even though the 4th quarter ended in December, candidates had until yesterday to file their reports, so the numbers here are a month old; that’s especially important to keep in mind in the fast-moving, competitive races for Menendez’s Senate seat and for the 3rd, 7th, and 8th congressional districts.)
Scroll to the bottom of this story for a spreadsheet with fundraising data in every race.
U.S. Senate (2024): The federal corruption charges against Menendez are the political story of the cycle, and the fundraising numbers for his seat bear that out.
The two leading contenders to take his seat, Rep. Andy Kim (D-Moorestown) and First Lady Tammy Murphy, both raised astronomical Q4 sums ahead of their Democratic primary showdown. Murphy raised $3,203,543 (after just six weeks in the race) and had $2,734,090 left on-hand, while Kim raised $1,774,117 and had $2,709,703 on-hand. (Kim had previously raised around $1 million in the final week of the 3rd quarter, his first week as a candidate.)
Menendez himself hasn’t ruled out running for a fourth term despite his complete loss of party support, but he’s not fundraising like a serious contender. He reported raising $103,943 in Q4, most of which came from interest on existing campaign cash; only $15,795 came from donors, many of whom had seemingly signed up for recurring donations before the indictment was released.
Even if he does want to run again, Menendez may not be able to afford to do so thanks to the legal bills he’s racking up. The senator spent nearly $2.5 million in Q4, mostly on legal fees, and he probably won’t have enough money to both continue paying his expensive lawyers and run a full-scale re-election campaign.
Two other notable Democrats are also running for Menendez’s seat: Larry Hamm, who raised $12,187, and Patricia Campos-Medina, who entered the race after the filing deadline.
As for Republicans, the fundraising leader by default was Mendham Borough Mayor Christine Serrano Glassner; she raised $266,534, $200,000 of which came from herself. Other Republican contenders, most notably Curtis Bashaw, hadn’t launched campaigns yet by the end of 2023.
1st district: Rep. Donald Norcross (D-Camden), who spent more than $3 million last cycle to ensure he’d win re-election in his solidly Democratic district, raised $377,039 last quarter and ended the year with $1,399,612 on-hand.
Norcross has no prominent challengers from either party on the horizon; one Republican, Damon Galdo, raised a total of $1,125 during the 4th quarter, while another, Nicholas Whitelock, entered the race after the quarter ended.
2nd district: After spending much of the 4th quarter teasing a potential U.S. Senate campaign, Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-Dennis) had his biggest fundraising quarter in years, raising $718,999 – more than half of it from small-dollar donors. Van Drew also spent quite a bit of money during the 4th quarter on expanding his donor base, and started 2024 with $904,758 on-hand, which should be plenty to win re-election in his Republican-leaning district.
Van Drew’s leading Democratic challenger, Joe Salerno, raised $113,524 and had $428,957 on-hand, much of which comes from a big bout of self-funding last summer. Salerno has three Democratic primary opponents, but they’re far behind in the money race; 2022 Democratic nominee Tim Alexander raised $29,475 in Q4, Carolyn Rush raised $2,711, and Brandon Saffold has yet to file any fundraising reports at all.
3rd district: The race for Andy Kim’s open 3rd congressional district seat has been going on for more than three months now, but the Democratic frontrunners to succeed him certainly aren’t fundraising like high-powered congressional candidates yet.
Assemblywoman Carol Murphy (D-Mount Laurel), who entered the race in October, raised $47,964 during the 4th quarter; Assemblyman Herb Conaway (D-Delran), who announced his campaign in December, raised $40,895. Both spent almost nothing during the entire quarter. (Two other Democratic candidates, Joe Cohn and Sarah Schoengood, joined the field after the 4th quarter ended.)
Granted, Conaway and Murphy both had to win re-election to their safe legislative seats in November, taking attention and money away from their congressional campaigns. Now that New Jersey’s legislative elections are over, donors may be more willing to open their pocketbooks.
Thanks to the lackluster hauls on the Democratic side, the top fundraiser in the 3rd district was instead a Republican, Shirley Maia-Cusick, who raised $14,749 from donors and threw an $82,000 personal loan on top of that. Maia-Cusick, who was previously a candidate for U.S. Senate before switching races in October, has just $10,844 left on-hand due to a very high burn rate.
Another Republican, Gregory Sobocinski, raised $3,450 during the 4th quarter. It remains to be seen whether Republicans land anyone more prominent than Sobocinski or Maia-Cusick to run for the 3rd district, which is Democratic-leaning but could be competitive under the right circumstances.
4th district: Rep. Chris Smith (R-Manchester) raised $102,749 and ended the 4th quarter with a $376,331 warchest.
Those aren’t huge numbers, but the only thing Smith needs to worry about in his deep-red district is a potential Republican primary challenger, and he doesn’t have one so far. As for Democrats, 2022 nominee Matt Jenkins raised $110 and Pam Daniels filed to run after the quarter ended.
5th district: Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-Wyckoff) had yet another gargantuan fundraising quarter to close out 2023, raising $1,479,045 and accumulating a $17,006,287 warchest, larger than that of many U.S. Senators.
He won’t need anywhere near that much to win re-election this year, given the lack of interest from rival Republicans and Democrats from taking him on in his Democratic-leaning district. One GOP challenger, former Bergen County Commissioner candidate Mary Jo-Ann Guinchard, has entered the race, but filed a statement declaring she has not raised enough money to warrant a full fundraising report.
6th district: There’s no reason to think Rep. Frank Pallone (D-Long Branch) is in any danger this cycle from a primary or general election challenge, but the congressman still has a sizable campaign warchest just in case. Pallone raised $298,927 in Q4 and has a whopping $3,069,887 in the bank; one Republican, Scott Fegler, filed to run for the 6th district after the 4th quarter ended.
7th district: Sue Altman continued to cement herself as the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination in the highly competitive 7th district during the 4th quarter, raising $275,272; her Democratic primary opponent, Jason Blazakis, raised $165,527. Since Altman has been in the race for longer, she also has a substantial cash-on-hand advantage over Blazakis, $531,726 to $228,197.
But both are still far behind the incumbent, GOP Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-Westfield), who raised $502,693 in Q4 and has a huge $2,110,338 left on-hand. Kean, who does not have any declared primary challengers, will likely start out the general election with a major financial headstart regardless of which Democrat wins the primary to take him on.
(Another Democratic contender in the 7th district, Summit Councilman Greg Vartan, ended his campaign last week; he had raised $82,718 during his lone quarter in the race.)
8th district: It’s big news whenever a congressional incumbent is outraised by a challenger, and that’s exactly what happened during Q4 in the 8th district, where incumbent Rep. Rob Menendez (D-Jersey City) faces Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla.
Menendez – whose political fortunes took a major hit last year when his father was indicted – raised $348,068 and had $692,550 on-hand. Those are respectable numbers, but they pale in comparison to those of Bhalla, who tapped into a nationwide network of Indian American donors to raise an astronomical $976,086 – almost three times Menendez’s total. Bhalla ended 2024 with $914,955 on-hand. (A third Democratic candidate, Kyle Jasey, raised $29,297 and had $20,347 left.)
Menendez still has the near-unanimous support of local politicians and party leaders in the safely Democratic 8th district, meaning that he won’t lack for resources and surrogates to get his message out. But Bhalla, unlike most off-the-line candidates, has enough money to force Menendez into a very real race.
9th district: With a possible primary challenge from Paterson Mayor André Sayegh on the horizon, Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson) raised $162,702 in the 4th quarter and has $1,383,226 on-hand.
It remains to be seen whether Pascrell does in fact face a competitive primary, but his warchest is more than enough to win re-election against his current paltry set of opponents. Mystery Democratic candidate William Henry has not reported raising anything eight months after filing to run, while threepeat Republican challenger Billy Prempeh still has not filed any fundraising paperwork despite actively soliciting donations.
10th district: Rep. Donald Payne Jr. (D-Newark), who has never been an especially strong fundraiser and who has rarely needed to be one in his safely Democratic district, raised $86,164 in Q4 and has $89,943 on-hand. With only a couple months left until the filing deadline, he has no declared opponents of either party.
11th district: Ahead of what’s likely to be a sleepy election cycle in a once-competitive district, Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-Montclair) raised $464,935 during Q4 and had $1,290,074 left in the bank. One GOP candidate, Joseph Belnome, has announced a campaign against her, but he did so after the 4th quarter ended.
12th district: Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing), who is under zero threat of a serious challenge from either party this cycle, raised $109,041 in the 4th quarter and has $171,767 on-hand. Darius Mayfield, the Republican nominee against Watson Coleman in 2022, raised $3,327 and has $2,782 left; former school board member Daniel Dart, a Democrat, entered the race after the filing deadline.
U.S. Senate (2026): U.S. Senator Cory Booker proved once again last quarter that he doesn’t need to be in-cycle to be a strong fundraiser. Though he won’t be up for re-election for nearly three years, Booker raised $771,393 in the 4th quarter and has a colossal $10,889,889 saved up.
Q4 fundraisingOnly candidates who have reported raising any money are included in this spreadsheet. Candidates who raised money but who have since ended their campaigns are also not included.