Baraka draws seven opponents in Newark mayoral race, none of them credible

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka appears to have a clear path to a fourth term against seven challengers, all relatively minor and many of them perennial candidates, in the May 12 non-partisan municipal election.

Baraka will face Douglas R. Davis, Tanisha Garner, Noble Milton, Sheila Montague, Debra Salters, Nasheedah Singleton, and Jhamar Youngblood.

Ninteen candidates filed to run for four at-large seats on the Newark City Council, including three incumbents: Luis Quintana, a councilman since 1994, Lawrence Crump, and Rev. Louse Scott-Roundtree.  All three are running on Baraka’s slate.

The fourth incumbent, Carlos Gonzalez, is not seeking re-election.

Also seeking at-large council seats are: Nadirah Brown;  Christina Cherry, a U.S. Army veteran; Malik Cooper; Josephine Garcia, Gonzalez’s chief of staff; Alonzo Herran Jr.; Joanette Hinnant; Donna Jackson; Khalil Kettles; Maria Lebron; Lynda Lloyd; Pablo Olivera, who has lost fifteen elections since 2003; Rasheen Peppers; Edden Rivera; Yusuf Shabazz; Lamont Vaughn; and Altarik White.

There are contests in all four Newark wards: North Ward Councilman Anibal Ramos, Jr. faces Marcos Sanchez; South Ward Councilman Patrick Council is being challenged by Lonnie Baker, Donald Jackson, Trenton Jones, Abdush Shahid Ahmad, Willie Jetti, and Asia Norton; West Ward Councilman Dupre “Do It All” Kelly faces Muta El-Amin, Jimmy McCoy, and Malcolm X. Outlaw; and Central Ward Councilwoman Amina Bey faces a rematch against her 2025 rival, former Councilwoman Gayle Chaneyfield-Jenkins.

East Ward Councilman Michael Silva, who won a hotly-contested runoff in 2022 against former Newark Police Chief Anthony Campos by a 57%-43% margin, has no opponent in his bid for a second term.  In the May election for retiring Councilman Augusto Amador’s seat, Silva finished 36 votes ahead of Campos in the May 10 election, 1,104 to 1,968 (35.6% to 34.6%).  Jonathan Seabra finished third with 478 votes (15.4%), followed by ex-police officer Louis Weber, who was running on a slate with Baraka before his campaign imploded following allegations of sexual assault.  He received 449 votes (14.5%).

This is Montague’s second mayoral bid; Baraka defeated her in a two-candidate race in 20022, 83%-17%.

Montague and Salters each sought the Democratic nomination for Congress in a July 2024 special primary for the seat of the late Rep. Donald Payne, Jr. (D-Newark).  Against now-Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-Newark), Montague received 966 votes (3%), and Salters got 316 votes (1%).  Youngblood ran in a November 2025 special election for McIver’s Central Ward council seat and received 1,012 votes (12%); he finished third behind Amina Bey (39%) and Gayle Chaneyfield Jenkins (38%).