Walker doesn’t rule out Senate challenge against McKnight

Assemblyman Jerry Walker (D-Jersey City) is leaving the door open to a 2027 State Senate challenge against Sen. Angela McKnight (D-Jersey City), an incumbent who was then-Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop’s choice for the seat four years ago.

Asked whether he had ruled out a Senate run — or decided instead to seek another term in the Assembly — Walker said he had not.

“No, I haven’t,” Walker said.

McKnight won the Senate seat in 2023 after Senate President Pro Tempore Sandra Bolden Cunningham declined to seek re-election.  Cunningham had been absent from the legislature for more than a year amid cognitive decline.

Fulop backed McKnight, then a three-term assemblywoman, to succeed Cunningham.

Walker, a former Hudson County commissioner, was elected to the Assembly in 2025 alongside incumbent Assemblyman William Sampson (D-Bayonne).  In the first legislative election held without the county line, Walker won the Democratic primary by a wide margin, finishing ahead of Sampson; Assemblywoman Barbara McCann Stamato (D-Jersey City) trailed Samon narrowly.

Talk of Walker challenging McKnight has circulated since before he took office.  The New Jersey Globe reported last year that Walker was interested in moving directly to the Senate and could face McKnight in the 2027 Democratic primary.

Now, Walker says his first year in the legislature has given him greater familiarity with Trenton and helped him build relationships that could help if he decides to seek a promotion.

“I’m down here learning; it’s been a great learning experience for me thus far,” Walker said. “I feel comfortable in the State House.”

Walker said some of those relationships predate his election and come through his ties to Seton Hall University.

“I do have a lot of relationships here through my Seton Hall connections,” he said.

A Walker-McKnight contest would create a rare open Democratic fight for the Senate nomination in the heavily Democratic 31st legislative district, which includes Jersey City and Bayonne.

It’s still unclear how a long-standing tradition of the mayor of Bayonne picking an assembly member will work in the post-county line era.  A new mayor, Sharon Ashe-Nadrowski, took office in July.

Bayonne has not sent a Republican to the legislature in more than 103 years.