Woman who helped break the county line joins Fulop slate as Assembly candidate

Carolyn Rush, who mounted primary campaigns for Congress in 2022 and 2024 and joined Andy Kim as a plaintiff in a lawsuit that appears to have ended the county organization line, will seek the Democratic nomination for State Assembly in the 1st legislative district on a slate backed by gubernatorial candidate Steve Fulop, the three-term mayor of Jersey City.

Joining Rush on the Fulop slate is Brandon Saffold, a fourth-generation member of the U.S. Coast Guard and a student at Princeton University.  As a teenager, Saffold worked part-time as a server at Congress Hall.

The two seek to take on three-term Republican Assemblymen Antwan McClellan (R-Ocean City) and Erik Simonsen (R-Lower) in a GOP-leaning district, that includes Cape May, most of Cumberland, and a small part of Atlantic.  It’s a district where Democratic legislative primaries are infrequent.

In the 27th district, which extends from Millburn to Clifton, Fulop has recruited Rohit Dave, the head of corporate development at Block, a financial services technology company, to take on Democratic Assemblywomen Rosy Bagolie (D-Livingston) and Alixon Collazos-Gill (D-Montclair).  The Millburn resident interned in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy in the Obama administration.

The three bring the total number of Fulop-affiliated Assembly candidates across the state to 34, spanning 22 of the state’s 40 legislative districts.

“Our campaign is about breaking free from the grip of political machines and empowering real leaders who prioritize the needs of New Jersey’s communities over political agendas,” Fulop stated. “These candidates embody the change we need—people who fight for progress and who see every barrier as an opportunity to create meaningful solutions. By supporting leaders who respond to the people, not the political bosses, we’re ensuring that New Jersey voters have a true choice and a path forward.”

Rush received 38% in the 2022 Democratic primary in an off-the-line bid to take on Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-Dennis) in New Jersey’s 2nd district.  The engineer and non-profit leader ran again last year and finished third in the primary with 21%.

Saffold also filed campaign finance paperwork for a 2nd district congressional campaign last year, but did not end up running.  Rush and Saffold are both from Cape May County.

Last year, it looked like Rush was supporting Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-Montclair) for governor.

“We need more qualified women in positions of power,” she wrote on Facebook on the day of Sherrill’s announcement.

The 1st district has been in Republican hands since 2019, when the GOP flipped a Senate seat and two Assembly seats after Van Drew, then a Democrat, left to take his seat in Congress.  Donald Trump carried the district with by nearly four percentage points in 2020 and by almost eleven points against Kamala Harris last year.  Republican gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli carried the 1st by just under nineteen points in 2021, and State Sen. Michael Testa (R-Vineland) was re-elected by more than 29 points.

The 27th is safe Democratic: Biden won it by 42 points and 2020 and Harris by 31 points in 2024.  In 2021, Gov. Phil Murphy won the 27th by almost 37 points.