Salem County Republican Chairman Linwood Donelson was re-elected this morning without opposition in a race that marked the end of the party reorganization season in New Jersey that included the defeat of four GOP county chairs.
Loretta Elwell was re-elected vice chair, along with Secretary Carey Italiano and Treasurer Kelly Ostrum.
Since 2018, when Democrats held a majority of seats on the Salem County Board of Commissioners, the county has flipped decidedly Republican. The only Democrat holding county office today is Surrogate Nicki Burke; she was re-elected in 2020 against future Assemblywoman Bethanne McCarthy Patrick (R-Mannington) by 801 votes and is up for re-election next year.
Donald Trump won Salem 55.3% to 42.5% in 2020 – Salem is one of two New Jersey counties that border Delaware, which Joe Biden represented in the U.S. Senate for 36 years – and carried Salem by fifteen percentage points in 2016.
Republicans are targeting control races in two Salem County municipalities: Woodstown and Carneys Point.
Donelson first became county chairman in late 2021 after Linda DuBois resigned. He is a partner at a Woodbury law firm, and is president of the Salem County Special Services and Vocational and Technical Schools Board of Education. He is a former member of the Lower Alloways Creek Board of Education.
At age 33, Donelson is the youngest Republican county chairman and the second youngest county chair; the youngest is 24-year-old Zoe Heath, the Sussex County Democratic chair. Donelson is four months younger than Atlantic County Democratic Chairman Michael Suleiman and a year younger than Hunterdon County GOP Chairman Gabe Plumer.
Republican county chairmen in Camden, Gloucester, Somerset and Union lost re-election this year. New GOP chairs were elected in Bergen and Mercer.