Races for countywide office in Cumberland are too close to call despite Donald Trump’s four-point win in a county that hasn’t backed a GOP presidential candidate since 1988.
County Clerk Celeste Riley holds a decent 1,515-vote, three-point lead in a rematch over Victoria Lods, a Republican county commissioner, in her bid for a third term. Riley, a former assemblywoman, is the last-standing Democrat holding countywide office.
In the race for county commissioner, Republican incumbents Antonio Romero (25,777) and Joseph Sileo (25,194), hold narrow leads against two Democrats: former Sheriff Robert Austino (25,000) and former Commissioner John Capizola, Jr. (24,445).
It’s not clear how many ballots remain uncounted.
Trump is 1,299 votes ahead of Kamala Harris in Cumberland, 515%-47.3%. In the U.S. Senate race, Republican Curtis Bashaw, a hotelier from next-door Cape May, leads Democrat Andy Kim in Cumberland by 482 votes.
Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-Dennis) leads in Cumberland by more than 8 points against Democrat Joe Salerno.
Over the last several years, Cumberland County has flipped to the Republicans, who now hold all seven county commissioner seats and occupy the sheriff and surrogate posts. The GOP resurgence began in 2019, when Republican County Chairman Mike Testa won Van Drew’s old state Senate
Riley defeated Lods by 1,422 votes, 53%-47%, in 2019.
Lods was elected county commissioner in 2022, ousting a Democratic incumbent by 3,078 votes.
The Riley name comes with some stature in Cumberland County. Her late father and her brother had served as freeholders, and she was in her third year as a Bridgeton city councilwoman when Democrats picked her in early 2009 to fill a vacant seat in the State Assembly.
In 2014, she challenged four-term incumbent Gloria Noto, an 82-year-old Republican, and won by 557 votes, 51%-49%.
In the Testa era, Cumberland County Republicans picked up two county commissioner seats in 2021, two in 2022 to take a 4-3 majority, and three more last year. The Democratic sheriff, Austino, lost re-election by ten percentage points.
Republican Jack Ciattarelli carried Cumberland by 12 points against Gov. Phil Murphy in 2021. But Joe Biden won Cumberland by six points in 2020.