McCoy holds 14th district Assembly seat for Dems; Greenstein, DeAngelo win re-election

Democrats have pulled off a clean sweep in the 14th legislative district, a Central Jersey district at the edge of the competitive playing field, the New Jersey Globe projects. State Sen. Linda Greenstein (D-Plainsboro) and Assemblyman Wayne DeAngelo (D-Hamilton) have been re-elected, while former state Labor Department official Tennille McCoy has won her first term in the Assembly.

As of 10:05 p.m., Greenstein leads her Republican challenger, retired nurse Patricia Johnson, by a resounding 62%-38% margin. DeAngelo is in first place for two Assembly seats with 31%, slightly trailed by McCoy with 30%; attorney Adam Elias and former appointed Hightstown Councilwoman Skye Gilmartin each have 19% of the vote.

The 14th district, which includes the large suburban townships of Hamilton in Mercer County and Monroe in Middlesex County, was once highly competitive turf; Greenstein’s 2013 re-election campaign was the closest Senate race in the state that year. In recent cycles, though, the GOP didn’t make much of an effort to unseat Greenstein, DeAngelo, or Assemblyman Dan Benson (D-Hamilton).

But with Benson’s retirement this year to run for Mercer County Executive, Republicans saw more of an opportunity than usual. McCoy, who won a complicated set of Democratic conventions in March for the right to succeed Benson, had lost several campaigns for Hamilton Township Council before and had next to no name recognition in the 14th district.

Elias in particular took up the mantle against McCoy, running a brutal TV ad hitting McCoy over remarks she had made at the Labor Department advocating for pushing aside white state employees. Ultimately, though, Republicans had little money to get their message out, and the 14th district was far too blue for the GOP to make much of a dent against what proved to be a strong Democratic slate.