For more than a century, Somerset County stood among New Jersey’s premier Republican strongholds. It backed Herbert Hoover over Franklin D. Roosevelt at the height of the Great Depression, remained reliably Republican through the New Deal and postwar eras, and even sent Republican Millicent Fenwick to Congress in 1974, when Watergate was sweeping Democrats into office across the nation. Today, Somerset has become one of New Jersey’s most dependable Democratic counties—a transformation driven by decades of demographic change, rapid suburban growth, and an influx of highly educated voters, reshaping the county’s political identity.
U.S. Senate
Cory Booker occupies a unique place in Somerset County’s political history: he is the last Democratic statewide candidate to lose there. Booker fell short by two percentage points in his 2013 special election and by just one point in his 2014 re-election campaign. But as Somerset evolved from one of New Jersey’s premier Republican counties into a Democratic stronghold, Booker’s margins grew with it. By 2020, he carried the county by 16 points. This year, Booker seeks another term against former Tabernacle deputy mayor Justin Murphy in a county where Democrats now hold a registration advantage of more than 28,000 voters. No Republican has carried Somerset since Jeff Bell narrowly defeated Booker there twelve years ago.
7th Congressional District
In New Jersey’s 7th congressional district, one of the nation’s premier battleground House seats, Somerset County accounts for just over one-fifth of all votes cast, making it a critical battleground in a race that could help determine control of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Incumbent two-term Republican Congressman Tom Kean Jr. represents many northern Somerset municipalities that were once safely Republican but have become increasingly competitive—or Democratic. His district includes Bedminster, Bernards, Bernardsville, Branchburg, part of Bridgewater, Far Hills, Green Brook, part of Hillsborough, Peapack-Gladstone, Raritan, Somerville, Warren, and Watchung.
Somerset has emerged as the district’s true swing county. While Kean won NJ-7 by three percentage points in 2022, he narrowly lost the Somerset portion to then-incumbent Tom Malinowski by one-half of a percentage point. Two years later, Kean carried Somerset by two points against former New Jersey Working Families Party leader Sue Altman. Of the five counties that make up the 7th District, Somerset was the only one to flip between the 2022 and 2024 elections, underscoring its role as the district’s pivotal swing county.
For Rebecca Bennett, a Bridgewater resident seeking to become Somerset County’s first congresswoman in 44 years, the county is central to her path to Washington. Democrats have traditionally relied on strong margins in Somerset to offset Republican strength elsewhere in the district, making Bennett’s performance on her home turf one of the race’s most closely watched indicators.
12th Congressional District
The Somerset portion of the 12th congressional district is significantly more Democratic than the Somerset portion of the 7th congressional district.
The towns included are Bound Brook, part of Bridgewater, part of Hillsborough, Franklin, Manville, Millstone, Montgomery Township, North Plainfield, Rocky Hill, and South Bound Brook.
Dr. Adam Hamawy is widely considered little more than a congressman-in-waiting to succeed Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing). Watson Coleman won this portion of Somerset by 25 points in her 2022 re-election and by 24 points in her 2024 re-election.
Perhaps more interesting in an area like this is that Hamawy won the Somerset portion of the 12th in his successful primary, outpolling incumbent Somerset County Commissioner Shanel Robinson by eight points. He faces Gregg Mele, a perennial candidate who ran for governor as an independent.
County Commissioner
Somerset County Democrats endured a very long dry spell, winning no county-level elections from 1979 until Somerville Councilman Steve Peter was elected county clerk. Democrats gradually flipped the sheriff’s office and all five county commissioner seats.
This year, incumbent Paul Drake is running for re-election with incumbent Elizabeth Graner. Graner, a former Bernards Township Democratic Municipal Chair, was elected by acclamation to replace incumbent two-term Democratic commissioner Douglas Singleterry, who resigned his county commissioner seat in June 2025 to become a Superior Court Judge. She easily won the unexpired term last year.
Republicans have struggled to remain competitive and to raise money. They are running Rakesh “Rocky” Ganta and Dan Gallic. Ganta ran for County commissioner in 2024; he and his running mate, Nick Cuozzo, lost 46% to 54%. Gallic is a Watchung Hills School Board member who ran for Commissioner in 2023, and He and his running mate, Donald Lemma, lost 55% to 45%. Ganta and Gallic are hoping to break their losing streak in commissioner races this year and break the 5-0 Majority on the board.
Bedminster
Republican Township Committeeman Colin Hickey is running for re-election to another three-year term and is being challenged by Democrat Julia O’Brien, a former FEMA official.
Hickey won with over 60 percent of the vote in his 2023 re-election. Bedminster is one of Somerset County’s more Republican municipalities, voting for Donald Trump in 2 of his 3 presidential elections and home to his golf course. It also narrowly voted for Republican Jack Ciattarelli in 2025 by 1.5 points.
A second seat has also opened up: a special election to fill the seat of Republican Renee Mareski, who is moving out of town. The candidates have not yet been selected.
Republicans currently control all five seats on the council. The best-case scenario for Democrats is a gain of two seats; that would represent a turning point in Bedminster politics, where Republicans have continued to dominate despite Democratic inroads in nearby municipalities.
Bernards
Mayor Ana Duarte McCarthy and Joan Bannan, a former township committeewoman and assistant Morris County prosecutor, will face Republicans Kirsten Light, a former school board member, and Paul Humbert, a 74-year-old attorney. Republicans had a competitive primary this year, and Light was not the party’s choice for council, but Humbert was. As a result, Republicans are running a hybrid ticket this year.
Democrats captured control of the Bernards Township Committee last year for the first time since 1938. Republicans need to win one of the seats to win back the majority.
Once a Republican stronghold, Bernards has swung Democratic in recent years. In 2024, Kamala Harris won the township by more than ten percentage points against Donald Trump.
In 2025, Mikie Sherrill carried Bernards by nearly 8.5 points against Jack Ciattarelli. Four years earlier, Ciattarelli won Bernards by almost 5.5 points.
Last year, Democrat Stephen Brett Hodges defeated incumbent David Tancredi by a 51%-49% margin. In a race for an unexpired term, Democrat John Tompkins won with 52%, flipping a second seat.
In the race for State Assembly, Democrats Andrew Macurdy (6,010) and Vincent Kearney (5,902) won Bernards over Republican incumbents Nancy Muñoz (5,314) and Michele Matsikoudis (5,292). Republicans need to return to winning Bernards if they want a chance to reclaim those Assembly seats in 2027.
Duarte McCarthy was elected to the township committee in 2023.
Bernards is a crucial swing town in the 7th congressional district in the contest between Congressman Tom Kean (R-Westfield) and Former Navy Helicopter pilot Rebecca Bennet. In 2022, the Town voted for Incumbent Tom Malinowski (D-Ringoes) by 3 points. In 2024, it narrowly voted for Kean by less than a point over former Working Families head Sue Altman.
Bernardsville
Republican Bernardsville Mayor Mary Jane Canose and Republican council candidates Kathleen Tober and Thomas Slocum appeared headed for an easy victory this November after no Democrats initially filed to run for mayor or for the two borough council seats up for election, including one they already held.
That changed when former Councilman Jeffrey Hammond won a write-in campaign for the Democratic mayoral nomination. Democratic incumbent Jeffrey Roos and Christopher Schenck mounted successful write-in campaigns for the two borough council seats.
Each candidate received more than 75 write-in votes — more than three times the 25 votes required to secure a Democratic nomination.
Now it’s a control election.
In 2023, Roos and incumbent Christine Zamarra got a combined 41% of the total vote in a divided field.
Hammond, the former medical director of the Level I Trauma Center at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, was elected councilman in 2018 but lost his re-election bid three years later.
Long regarded as one of Somerset County’s most competitive municipalities, Bernardsville was once a reliably Republican stronghold but has steadily trended Democratic, in step with the county as a whole. Kamala Harris carried the borough by just under two percentage points in the 2024 presidential election, and Gov. Mikie Sherrill narrowly won Bernardsville in 2025, defeating Jack Ciattarelli by less than one percentage point.
Republicans, however, have continued to enjoy greater success at the local level.
In 2022, Canose was first elected Mayor of the town with over 60 percent of the vote.
Last year, Republican incumbents Rich Traynor and Charlie Szrom fended off a strong challenge from Democrats Daniel Woods and Robert Frawley, winning a combined 53% of the vote on the same ballot that saw Sherrill carry the borough. The outcome highlighted the continued resilience of Bernardsville Republicans even as the community has become more competitive in the second Trump era.
Republicans currently hold a 4-2 Majority on the council, with one seat held by Zamarra and the other by Roos. If Democrats lost both, they would be shut out of the council.
Bound Brook
Bound Brook is one of Somerset’s most Democratic municipalities.
Democratic incumbent Shawn Guerra is running for re-election, with Democrat Kristen Colbert, a sales and client operations manager, running against Republican Glen Rossi and Linda Brnicevic.
Bound Brook is very Democratic the further up the ballot you go, but down-ballot Republicans can still be competitive. Guerra won his 2023 election by only one vote.
Gov. Mikie Sherrill carried Bound Brook by nearly 30 points last year.
Branchburg
Branchburg is one of only a few municipalities in Somerset County that has voted for Donald Trump in all three of his presidential elections: by 14 points in 2016, 2 points in 2020, and 6 points in 2024.
Republicans currently control all five council seats, and incumbent councilman James Schworn is running for another three-year term against Democrat Jay Tilak, a senior product manager in the tech industry.
With Republicans still consistently winning Branchburg in presidential elections, they begin this year as the clear favorites. Still, the narrowing margins may be an auspicious sign for future cycles, but likely not this one.
Franklin
Interim Councilman Shubendu Singh faces no Republican opponent in a special election for a Ward 1 council seat; he was appointed in February to replace Ed Potosnak, who resigned to join Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s cabinet as Commissioner of Environmental Protection.
Green Brook
Republican incumbent committeeman James Benscoter and Republican Marlan Schwatz are running for two council seats in Green Brook this year. Former teacher Jennifer Dawson and Arthur Goodman are challenging them.
Green Brook is a competitive town. At the municipal level, it is controlled by all Republicans. Kamala Harris carried it by 10 points in 2024, and Gov. Mikie Sherrill carried it by 10 points last year.
Hillsborough
The race for two township committee seats in Hillsborough is the race to watch this fall. This is a control election in the third-largest municipality in Somerset County,
Republican Mayor Catherine Payne is running for another three-year term, and Republican Rob Movshin, the vice president of logistics at Red Trucking, will be seeking to flip the seat held by incumbent committeewoman Samantha Hand.
The 2026 Hillsborough Democratic committee slate will consist of Hand and Meghann Valeo, a U.S. Army Veteran and community volunteer.
Republicans currently hold the Somerset County town by a 3-2 margin, but Democrats are looking to build upon their strong 2025 and wrest control from the GOP.
Hand, a corporate executive, first won election to the committee in 2023. Valeo, an Army veteran, served as a Military Police platoon leader in Baghdad during Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2005 and received a Bronze Star, according to the announcement.
Payne ran for state assembly last year in the 16th legislative district, losing the district to incumbent Democrats Roy Freiman and Mitchele Druilis. More relevant to the 2026 local election is that Payne finished third in her hometown, behind Freiman and Drulis; she lost Hillsborough by over 10 points, trailing Drulis by 2,578 votes. i. Freiman also serves as the Hillsborough Democratic Municipal Chair.
Last year, Democrat Jill Gomez defeated incumbent Republican John Ciccarelli 55%-45%.
Democratic Gov. Mikie Sherrill won Hillsborough by about 13 percentage points last month. In 2021, it went for Republican Jack Ciattarelli by nearly 5 points — an 18-point swing.
Manville
Republican Councilwoman Dayna Camacho is running for another three-year term, with Republican Manisha Batt, who works for a pharmaceutical company, seeking to replace retiring Republican Jade Puia.
With an evenly divided council, Democrats could take control by flipping even one seat. Challenging them are Democrats Melissa Bellamy, a member of the Recreation Commission and a nurse, and Christine Abood, a longtime Somerset County employee.
Manville had long been a swing town but has leaned Republican in recent years. Donald Trump won 54% in 2020, and Jack Ciattarelli took 64.5% in his bid to unseat Gov. Phil Murphy in 2021.
In 2025, however, Gov. Mikie Sherrill eked out a win in the town by half a point over Ciattarelli.
Montgomery
A generation ago, Republicans dominated Montgomery, but its municipal results have closely mirrored those of the county as a whole, where Democrats routinely win elections by comfortable margins. In a Trump midterm, the prospect remains largely the same.
Incumbent Committeewoman Patricia Taylor Todd is running for re-election to another one-year term and will be challenged by Republican former pharmaceutical company executive George Desanctis. Committeeman Vince Barragan, who has two years left on his term, has resigned due to a move out of Montgomery; there will will be special electiom to fill his unexpired term.
North Plainfield
Democratic councilmembers Suezette Given, Steven McIntyre, Everett Merrill, and Wendy Schaefer are running to retain their seats on the North Plainfield council.
Republicans Michelle Mayorga, Stewart Del’Romero, Jennifer Rizzo, and Thomas Jones Jr. are challenging them. Republicans have not won locally in over a decade.
Mayorga ran for Somerset County commissioner last year and lost 41% to 58% to interim incumbent Elizabeth Graner.
North Plainfield is strongly Democratic. Gov. Mikie Sherrill won it by over 35 points, and even in Donald Trump’s 2024 and Jack Ciattarelli’s strong 2021 showing, they still lost the town by over 30 points.
Peapack-Gladstone
Democrats appear to cede the Peapack-Gladstone mayoralty this year, with no one filing to run against Mayor Mark A. Cornigliano.
Incumbent Republican councilwoman Julie Sueta is running for another three-year term, and former Somerset County Republican Party chairman Tim Howes will be running to keep the seat of retiring incumbent Sergio Silve in the GOP column.
Democrats will be running Steve Kinsey and James Heck, both members of the Peapack-Gladstone emergency response team.
If Howes wins, it will mark a return to the borough council after a 24-year absence. He first won in 1996 and served two terms.
If Democrats win these seats, they will take the council to 3-3, with a Republican mayor. The borough voted for Jack Ciattarelli by less than a point in 2025 and Kamala Harris by less than a point in 2024.
Raritan
Democrat Adam Amahizer will face off against interim Republican Mayor Donald Tozzi for Raritan Mayor this fall.
Tozzi became mayor after the unexpected resignation of Mayor Nicolas Carra. The race will be for Carra’s 13-month unexpired term.
For council, Republicans are running Jeffrey McNally and Jeffrey King, while Democrats are running Heath Hofmeister and Jacob Martinez.
Amahizer, 27, defeated James Foohey, the 73-year-old council president, in the June 2 primary election by eight points. In 2022, Armahizer was elected to the borough council by a margin of 7 votes. He did not seek re-election last year.
Donald Trump carried Raritan by less than a point in 2024, and Mikie Sherrill carried it by five points in 2025 against Jack Ciattarelli, who began his political career in the 1980s as a Raritan councilman.
Warren Township
Republican mayor Shaun Fine and Deputy Mayor Vanessa Kian are both running for re-election to three-year terms. Democrats William DiGrande and Samuel Holden are challenging them.
The Republican advantage in Warren has narrowed in recent years, but Republicans still hold a material advantage.
Jack Ciattarelli won Warren by 6 points in 2025, and Donald Trump carried Warren by 5 points in 2024.
Watchung
Incumbent Watchung Mayor Ronald Jubin is running for another four-year term and is being challenged by Democrat Daryl Eisenberg Knegten, former councilwoman. Four years ago, Jubin won re-election by 10 points.
Watchung’s six-member council is currently 6-0 Republican, and Democrats are looking to see if they can break through and make long-term sustainable gains.
Republican incumbents Robert Gibbs and Sonia Abi-Habib are running for re-election to three-year terms. They are being challenged by Democrats Dr. Albin Xavier, an emergency Medical physician, and Colin Yhlen, a certified public accountant.
Watchung is a competitive town that voted for both Gov. Mikie Sherrill in 2025 and Kamala Harris in 2024 by less than a point. Democrats Andrew Macurdy (D-Summit) and Vincent Kearney (D-Garwood) carried Warren by about 100 votes in their successful bid to oust two Republican assemblywomen last year.
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