Seth Hahn will step down as executive director of the Assembly Majority Office in September after six years as one of Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin’s top staffers and after Democrats flipped eleven seats during the two elections on his watch.
Coughlin is expected to name Hahn’s replacement within the next few days. Hahn will continue to advise the speaker on legislative and political issues from outside state government.
“Seth has been an invaluable member of our team and an important part of the success of our caucus of the past six years,” Coughlin said. “Seth’s leadership was instrumental in expanding paid family leave, passing landmark affordable housing legislation, increasing ballot access, and making sure New Jersey has been on the leading edge pushing back against attacks on reproductive care, immigrants’ rights, voting rights and common sense gun safety laws.”
Hahn, a former labor political operative with deep progressive credentials, joined the Assembly Majority Office as deputy executive director in 2020. He moved into the top staff position after Anthony J. “Skip” Cimino retired following the 2021 election.
As executive director, Hahn served as the Assembly Democrats’ top strategist and chief negotiator, overseeing policy development and managing a sprawling caucus that grew substantially during his tenure.
He was the Assembly’s lead negotiator on five bipartisan state budgets spanning the administrations of Gov. Phil Murphy and Gov. Mikie Sherrill.
“I wish him the best of luck as he enters the next phase of his career, and I know he will be successful,” Coughlin said.
Hahn’s departure comes after a remarkable period of electoral growth for Assembly Democrats, who expanded their majority from 46 seats to 57 over two election cycles.
The eleven-seat gain gave Democrats their largest Assembly majority since the 1973 Watergate landslide. It also marked the first time in more than 120 years that a party already controlling the chamber gained a significant number of seats in two consecutive elections.
Democrats entered the 2023 election facing expectations that Republicans, who got a statistically fair deal map in redistricting, could build on the seven Assembly seats they had gained two years earlier. Instead, Democrats reversed nearly all those losses, flipping six seats and increasing their majority to 52-28.
They added another five seats in 2025, leaving Republicans with just 23 members and giving Coughlin an overwhelming majority as he began another term as speaker.
Hahn played a central role in shaping the political strategy behind those victories while helping Coughlin navigate sometimes-competing demands from progressives, organized labor, suburban moderates and members representing politically competitive districts.
“It has been an extraordinary privilege to serve with Speaker Coughlin, the members of the Assembly, and the dedicated staff who serve the Legislature,” Hahn said. “I have never lost the feeling of awe entering the Assembly floor or the weight of knowing 9.5 million people are counting on their elected representatives to fight for them and improve their lives.”
Hahn said serving as executive director had been an honor and predicted continued success for the Speaker and his caucus.
“I know Speaker Coughlin and the entire Assembly have bright days ahead,” he said.
Before joining the Legislature, Hahn spent a decade with the Communications Workers of America, where he served as the union’s New Jersey legislative and political director and as treasurer of its powerful political action committee.
He was a top political lieutenant to Hetty Rosenstein, the influential progressive labor leader who led CWA’s New Jersey operations and became one of the state’s most prominent union activists.
Hahn left CWA in the fall of 2019 to join NJ United, a nonprofit organization formed to promote Coughlin’s legislative agenda. His arrival helped Coughlin strengthen relationships with organized labor and progressive groups as the speaker worked to establish an independent political and policy operation.
He brought longstanding ties to New Jersey’s progressive movement. Hahn served on the boards of the New Jersey Working Families Alliance and New Jersey Citizen Action and was a delegate for Bernie Sanders at the 2016 Democratic National Convention.
A Highland Park resident, Hahn graduated from Princeton University in 2004 and began his political career as a field organizer for Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle’s unsuccessful re-election campaign in South Dakota that year.
He later served as national field director for the National Association of Letter Carriers before joining CWA in 2009.
Coughlin’s selection of a successor will come as Assembly Democrats prepare to defend their historic majority, possibly with an increased number of primary fights following a 2024 federal court decision that eliminated county organization lines.