A look at federal, county and municipal races in Cumberland County in 2026

One of New Jersey’s premier swing counties — and the sixth smallest– Cumberland was not long ago completely Democratic up and down the ballot. But as the Trump era progressed, the margins shrank and shrank and shrank in a county that voted for Barack Obama by more than 20 points. Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden each managed only 6-point wins there in their Garden State campaigns.

The worrying trend for Cumberland County Democrats culminated in 2021, when Republican Jack Ciattarelli won a commanding 11-point victory in a statewide race that was closer than anyone expected. The bad news continued at the top of the ticket in 2024, when Donald Trump became the first Republican to carry the county since 1988, winning it by 4 points.

But 2024 was also the year Cumberland County Democrats began to show signs of a resurgence, holding the one local office they had left and gaining one more. In 2025, Democrats won back some more local offices while Gov. Mikie Sherrill flipped the county back into the Democratic column.

In 2026, the county is a battleground with implications at both the national and state levels: a test of how Trump’s 2024 coalition views his second term, and an early proving ground for potential 2029 gubernatorial candidates who will certainly need to perform well in Cumberland to be competitive statewide.

U.S. Senate

U.S. Senator Cory Booker has carried Cumberland County by moderate single-digit margins in all three of his Senate elections, winning it by 4 points in 2013 and by 9 points in both 2014 and 2020, and is the overwhelming favorite to win a third 6-year term. 

The county is not unwilling to support Republican candidates for U.S. Senate. Curtis Bashaw(from next-door Cape May)  narrowly carried the county by less than a point in 2024 over now-U.S. Senator Andy Kim    Republican Justin Murphy lives less than an hour from Vineland.  

 

Congress 2nd Congressional District

Four-term Republican Congressman Jeff Van Drew is running for re-election to another term in Congress, with Cape May Mayor Zack Mullock challenging him.

While Republicans remain favored to hold the 2nd District despite the national environment, it is not out of the question that Mullock could pull off an upset. In 1972, Republicna Rep.  Charles Sandman of Cape May won the 2nd by 31 points; two years later, in a Democratic wave election, he lost by 16. Mullock won the Democratic nomination in part due to a strong showing among Cumberland Democrats beyond his base in Cape May County.

Van Drew carried Cumberland by a whopping 21 points as a Democrat in 2018, 

In 2020, he lost it by four in his first run as a Republican. In 2022, he finally carried the county in a congressional race as a Republican, winning by 13 points; in 2024, he carried the county by 9 points. Van Drew’s district-wide wins in 2020 and 2018 show that the county is not critical for carrying the district as a Republican, but you can’t lose it by that much; on the contrary, carrying the district as a Democrat requires you to run up the score. 

 If Mullock loses but puts up a strong showing in Cumberland and Cape May counties, it could elevate his prospects as a potential state-level candidate for the Assembly or Senate next year in the 1st Legislative District, which covers almost all of Cumberland County.

If he were to pull off the upset, it could revive Democratic efforts to recruit a credible candidate to try and flip the 1st District again—once very competitive but now firmly in the Republican direction.

County Commissioner

At this point in 2024, Cumberland County Democrats were beginning to look like an endangered, soon-to-be-extinct species. Republicans had flipped the commissioner board after the 2022 elections and appeared to be looking for the knockout punch.

But when things did not look like they could get much lower, Democrats started winning once again. They flipped a county commissioner seat with Democratic former Sheriff Robert Austino, who lost re-election in 2023, and Democrat Celeste Riley held the county clerk’s office despite Donald Trump’s presidential-level win.

The signs of life flickered again in 2025, when John Capizola and Yolanda Garcia Balacki ousted incumbents Douglas Albrecht and Victoria Lods as Gov. Mikie Sherrill flipped the county back to the Democratic column, carrying it by 4 points.

That set up a control election this year, with incumbents Sandra Taylor, Art Marchand, and James Sauro all running for re-election. The trio all won in 2023 with a combined 57% of the vote.

The Democrats challenging them are Ron Franceschini, Joe Pepitone (a veteran of Vineland politics and not the 1960s era Yankees first baseman), and LaRae Smith. The former two had the backing of the county party, which has splintered in recent years.

If Democrats flip even one of these seats, they can retake control of the board. These elections also have state-level implications. State Sen. Mike Testa (R-Vineland), the Cumberland County Republican Party chairman, is widely seen as a potential candidate for governor in 2029. But to establish his credibility as a statewide candidate, he needs to show that his party can win in the competitive areas of his home turf.If Democrats flip the board, that sends Testa backwards.

Sheriff 

Sheriff Michael Donato is running for re-election to a second term. Republicans first flipped the sheriff’s office in 2023 and are looking to defend the seat.

Donato won by 11 points in 2023 and is being challenged in a rematch by former sheriff and incumbent Democratic County Commissioner Robert Austino, who flipped a county seat in 2024 after losing to Donato in 2023.

Austino was first elected county sheriff in 2009 and served until losing in 2023. He is a retired Vineland police lieutenant.  This is the third consecutive Austino vs. Donato faceoff: Austino won a 53%-46% sheriff’s race against Donato in 2020. 

Commercial 

Committeeman Ronald Sutton is running for re-election to Commercial’s three-member council. He is being challenged by Democrat and former committeeman Fletcher Jamison. Jamison served on the council on and off over the last two decades.

Commercial is a deeply Republican town. Jack Ciattarelli carried Commercial by 20 points in 2025, while Donald Trump carried the township by 27 points.

Despite the town’s Republican lean, it has elected Democrats at the local level. In 2023, then-Mayor Warren “Mike” Vizzard was elected as a Democrat before switching parties to become a Republican.

Hopewell 

Township Committeeman Jeffrey Shrimp and Judith Zirkle, a member of the land use board, are running for two seats on the township council. The pair has only one Democratic challenger: Marlisee Counsellor, a beauty consultant for Mary Kay Cosmetics. Democrats did not field a candidate for the other seat.

Hopewell has been a very Republican town at every level for decades. Jack Ciattarelli carried Hopewell by 20 points in 2025, and Donald Trump carried it by almost 30 points in 2024.