Tai Cooper elected Union County Clerk in Democratic landslide

Tahirah “Tai” Cooper was elected Union County clerk on Tuesday, becoming the first Black person to hold the office and succeeding Joanne Rajoppi, the legendary county clerk whose death in July ended a 53-year career in New Jersey politics and government.

Cooper, a Fanwood resident and chief community development officer at the New Jersey Economic Development Authority, won a full five-year term in a special election to replace Rajoppi, who had served as county clerk since 1995 and was re-elected to a sixth term last year.  She defeated Republican Jimmy Diaz Jr., a Linden resident who had originally won his party’s nomination for mayor before withdrawing to run for county clerk.

Democrats also swept the other countywide races, re-electing Sheriff Peter Corvelli and Commissioners Joseph Bodek, Lourdes Leon and Michele Delisfort, extending their winning streak to 31 years and preserving their 9-0 majority on the Board of County Commissioners.   They defeated Republicans Cathy Jakositz, Christopher Bacey and Miguel Rodriguez.

Jakositz, a former Mountainside Board of Education member, also ran against the three Democratic incumbents in 2023; Bacey, a public relations specialist, was making his second bid for commissioner after losing in 2025; and Rodriguez is a member of the Union County Republican Committee.

Corvelli, a former Kenilworth councilman who first won the sheriff’s office in 2017, defeated Republican Gerardo Napolitano in a rematch of their 2023 contest. Corvelli won that race, 62%-37%.

Republicans have not won a countywide election in Union since 1995.

Cooper emerged from a contested Democratic special election convention in August, defeating longtime Elizabeth Councilwoman Patricia Perkins-Auguste, 346-137, a 72%-28% margin.

The contest divided some of Union County’s leading Democrats.

Cooper had the support of Plainfield Mayor Adrian Mapp, Fanwood Mayor Colleen Mahr, Assemblyman Vincent Kearney, and Democratic leaders in Summit, Springfield, Mountainside and Westfield.

Perkins-Auguste, an Elizabeth councilwoman since 1993, was backed by Elizabeth Mayor Chris Bollwage, Commissioners Stanley Neron and Michele Delisfort, former Commissioner Sergio Granados, and former State Sen. Raymond Lesniak.

Cooper previously served as deputy chief policy adviser to Gov. Phil Murphy, where she led the administration’s federal Opportunity Zone initiative, and was a senior policy adviser to Newark Mayor Ras Baraka. She began her government career working for U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg.

She succeeds one of New Jersey’s most accomplished county officials.

Rajoppi began her political career in 1973, winning a seat on the Springfield Board of Education at age 24. She was elected to the Springfield Township Committee in 1975, became mayor in 1977, and won a seat on the Union County Board of Freeholders later that year.

In 1983, she unseated Republican County Register Richard Hatfield, winning by approximately 3,000 votes, and held that office until it was merged with the county clerk’s office in 1995.  She then defeated Republican Paul O’Keefe to become Union County’s first woman county clerk, a position she held for more than three decades.

The Democratic sweep continues a dramatic political realignment in a county that was once among New Jersey’s most competitive.

Republicans once routinely won commanding margins in Westfield, Summit, New Providence and Berkeley Heights, while competing in communities such as Rahway and Union Township.  Those suburban advantages have largely disappeared.

The Republican retreat accelerated in 2025, when the GOP lost both Union County-based State Assembly seats.  For the first time since the 1930s, no Republican from Union County serves in the Assembly, leaving State Sen. Jon Bramnick (R-Westfield) as the county’s only Republican state legislator.

The last Republican elected to the Union County Board of Freeholders won in 1995, the same year Rajoppi first became county clerk.