Egan, Danielsen win in LD17 after primary scare

Assemblymen Kevin Egan (D-New Brunswick) and Joe Danielsen (D-Franklin) have won re-election in the 17th legislative district, the New Jersey Globe projects, an unsurprising win after dodging disaster in the June primary.

The Democratic incumbents defeated Republicans Susan Hucko and Patricia Badovinac, who had already lost prior campaigns in the deep-blue Middlesex County district. As of 10:42 p.m. and with nearly every vote counted, the assemblymen have 76% of the vote, while Hucko and Badovinac have 24%.

Egan, a freshman legislator, was bequeathed the seat of his father, longtime Assemblyman Joe Egan, after his father’s sudden retirement in 2023. Danielsen joined the Assembly in 2014, when he won a special convention to succeed former Assemblyman Upendra Chivukula. 

In the June primary, Piscataway Board of Education member and Habitat for Humanity executive Loretta Rivers challenged Egan and Danielsen for the nomination, coming less than 500 votes from upsetting Danielsen. Rivers ran on Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop’s slate of anti-establishment Assembly candidates, and progressives had expressed ire toward Danielsen, who sponsored a controversial law overhauling New Jersey’s open records laws. 

Rivers’ low-funded campaign wasn’t enough to beat Danielsen’s incumbency, however, and his re-election became essentially assured when he won the nomination. 

Egan’s and Danielsen’s victory means the 17th — which is about one quarter white, Black, Asian, and Hispanic each — will continue to have three white men representing it in Trenton.