Adam Elias launches campaign to flip 14th district Assembly seat

Attorney Adam Elias will run this year for the Assembly in the 14th district, giving Republicans a candidate in a tough Mercer and Middlesex County-based district that they’d likely have to flip if they want a shot at a majority in the New Jersey Legislature.

“I’m trying to get some fresh blood in Trenton,” Elias told the New Jersey Globe. “Democrat problems, Republican problems – people are getting frustrated.”

This isn’t Elias’ first legislative campaign; he ran for the State Senate in the same district in 2021, losing to incumbent State Sen. Linda Greenstein (D-Plainsboro) 55%-45%. His campaign got little outside funding or support, but Elias said he anticipates this year will be different.

“[Republican leaders] have reached out to us quite a bit early on,” he said. “They’re definitely targeting LD14 as one of the districts they want to flip this year.”

14th district Republicans had already settled on their Senate candidate: Patricia Johnson, who ran in the neighboring 15th district in 2021. It’s not yet clear who will run alongside Elias for the district’s other Assembly seat.

Democrats are still working on cobbling together their own slate. Greenstein and Assemblyman Wayne DeAngelo (D-Hamilton) are running for re-election, but Assemblyman Dan Benson (D-Hamilton) is instead campaigning for Mercer County Executive; two Democratic candidates, Tennille McCoy and Rick Carabelli, will compete for the open seat.

Whatever Democratic team emerges from the primary will be favored in a slightly redrawn district that would have backed Gov. Phil Murphy by nine points in 2021. But Elias argued that, with issues like inflation and crime troubling people across the district, Republicans have a real shot of winning.

“Safety and affordability are always on everybody’s minds, and I think people in District 14 especially, they look for the right candidates,” he said. “They’re not necessarily committed to one line on the ballot or the other. They don’t mind doing a zig-zag.”