Democrats have retained their legislative seats in Hudson County, with a few Democratic incumbents and lots of newcomers easily winning the 31st, 32nd, and 33rd districts, the New Jersey Globe projects.
In the 31st district, which includes Bayonne, Kearny, and the southern half of Jersey City, Assemblywoman Angela McKnight (D-Jersey City) has been elected to the Senate seat currently held by Senate President Pro Tempore Sandra Cunningham (D-Jersey City). Cunningham, the third-highest ranking member of the Senate, has been absent from the Senate due to cognitive health issues for more than a year.
Winning alongside McKnight in the 31st district are Assemblyman William Sampson (D-Bayonne) and Barbara McCann Stamato, a longtime party insider who was chosen to take McKnight’s place in the Assembly.
McKnight defeated Republican Luis Soto, while Sampson and McCann Stamato beat out two Republicans, Angelique Diaz and Sydney Ferreira, as well as two notable independent challengers: Jersey City Board of Education vice president Noemi Velazquez and former Bayonne Councilwoman Mary Jane Desmond.
One seat to the north, Assemblyman Raj Mukherji (D-Jersey City) has won election to the Senate from the Hoboken- and Jersey City-based 32nd district against Republican Ilyas Mohammed. Mukherji was given the unexpected chance to rise to the Senate this year when State Sen. Brian Stack (D-Union City) was shifted into a different district.
Two newcomers, Jessica Ramirez and John Allen, have been elected to the 32nd district’s Assembly seats over a single Republican challenger, Robert Ramos. Ramirez, an attorney, is Mukherji’s successor; Allen, the former chief of staff to Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla, is taking the spot of Assemblywoman Annette Chaparro (D-Hoboken), who was dumped by Bhalla after four terms in the legislature.
And in the 33rd district – which includes Hispanic-majority towns like Union City, North Bergen, and West New York – Stack and his new running mates, former West New York Mayor Gabe Rodriguez and former North Bergen Commissioner Julio Marenco, won with no Republican challengers whatsoever. (Two Socialist Workers Party candidates were their only opposition.)
On the state’s new legislative map, Stack was put into the same district as State Sen. Nicholas Sacco (D-North Bergen), setting up a potential incumbent-on-incumbent showdown. But Stack’s towering popularity in Union City, where he’s also the mayor, made him a formidable opponent, and Sacco ended up choosing to retire rather than run against him.
Rodriguez and Marenco are taking the spots of two incumbent legislators, Assemblywoman Angelica Jimenez (D-West New York) and Assemblyman Vincent Prieto (D-Secaucus). Neither wanted to leave, but in Hudson County, when party leadership makes up its mind that’s usually the end of it.
Marenco, a loyal Sacco ally, will be interesting to watch in the legislature. Last month, he attended an event hosted by an anti-vaccine group, and it’s possible that he ends up being less of a party-line Democrat than most Hudson legislators tend to be.
See all 2023 election results HERE.
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