Tiver seeks re-election in pivotal 8th district Senate race

One of New Jersey’s most vulnerable Republican incumbents is officially seeking another term, setting up what is expected to be one of the state’s marquee legislative battles of 2027.

Freshman State Sen. Latham Tiver (R-Southampton) announced Tuesday that he will seek re-election in the 8th legislative district, a closely divided seat that Democrats view as one of their best opportunities to gain control of another Senate seat.

“We’re going for it. We’re going to run,” Tiver said when asked about his political future.

The 8th is one of New Jersey’s few split legislative districts, electing a Republican to the State Senate while sending two Democrats to the General Assembly. The district backed Kamala Harris by just one percentage point in 2024 before giving Gov. Mikie Sherrill a 5.5-point victory in 2025.

Tiver and Vince Polistina (R-Egg Harbor Township) sit atop the target list of South Jersey Democratic powerbroker George E. Norcross III, who is aiming to flip both Republican-held Senate seats.

An official with the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 825, Tiver served as a Burlington County commissioner from 2016 to 2019 and won his Senate seat in 2023 after Jean Stanfield (R-Westampton) stepped aside after one term. He defeated former Pemberton Councilwoman Gaye Burton by 1,157 votes, a margin of about two percentage points.

Part of the back story is that Tiver’s union has been feuding with the New Jersey Building & Construction Trades Council, which is run by a staunch Norcross ally, Bil Mullen.

The dispute with Mullen centers on the 8th. A nonprofit led by Mullen was funding a grassroots effort to encourage registered Democrats in the district to automatically receive vote-by-mail ballots, a strategy designed to boost turnout among Democratic voters who are less likely to participate in a low-turnout election such as the 2023 race. That effort was intended to benefit Tiver’s Democratic opponent.

Democrats began reshaping the district in 2023 when Andrea Katz (D-Chesterfield) unseated incumbent Brandon Umba (R-Medford), marking the party’s first Assembly victory in the district since 1973. They completed the sweep of the Assembly delegation last year when Anthony Angelozzi (D-Hammonton) defeated Michael Torrissi (R-Hammonton), leaving Tiver as the district’s lone Republican legislator.

“This district was the state’s most expensive legislative race in 2025, so Tiver needs to be able to compete financially, and that means putting as much money in the bank now as he can,” said Micah Rasmussen, director of the Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics at Rider University.

Rasmussen said Local 825 will also have to play a significant role if Republicans hope to hold the seat.

“His employer is going to need to be prepared to step up in a major way if they are going to try and keep him in the Senate,” Rasmussen said.

Angelozzi has expressed interest in challenging Tiver if he emerges as the consensus choice of the Atlantic and Burlington County Democratic organizations.

“Tiver needs to work as hard as his opponent, and if that’s Angelozzi, that’s not going to be easy,” Rasmussen said.

Rasmussen said Tiver has two paths to victory: expand Republican margins in the district’s conservative towns or cut into Democratic advantages in its larger population centers.

“Evesham, Lumberton, Mount Holly, Pemberton and Westampton were the towns that gave Democrats their 5,000-vote margin in 2025,” Rasmussen said.  “Can Tiver inspire an even bigger turnout than 2025 from Hammonton and the more rural towns in the district that maintained their ancestral Republican roots? Or can he cut into the more populated towns where the Democrats have broken through?”

Katz is also expected to consider a Senate bid. Whether Democrats nominate Katz, Angelozzi, or another candidate, the 8th Legislative District is expected to be one of New Jersey’s premier legislative battlegrounds in 2027.

In 2023, Democrats sought to recruit former Philadelphia Eagles star Ron Jaworski to run for the Senate, but he turned them down – repeatedly.