Who were the real losers in the 2025 NJ primary? County machines and bosses | Opinion

June 23, 2025

This month, New Jersey held its first statewide primary in which all counties used a ballot without a county line. The results confirm what a political earthquake this change is for the Garden State’s politics.

As pre-election polling predicted, U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill and former Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli won their respective primaries for governor in the June 10 New Jersey primary election.

That top line, however, hides some very dramatic results.

In 10 counties — seven in the Democratic primary and three in the Republican primary — the gubernatorial candidate endorsed by the local party organization lost. These counties include some with very strong Democratic political machines like Camden, Essex and Union, and very strong Republican political machines like Ocean.

New Jersey’s county political machine bosses are losing power

To put that in context, no Democratic gubernatorial nominee on the county line has lost a county in this century.  Only three Republican gubernatorial nominees on the county line have lost in the last 20 years and all three losses were in Democratically controlled counties with weak Republican parties.

There were substantial upsets in the Assembly races as well. Although the votes are still being counted in several close races, five Assembly candidates are currently defeating those endorsed by the county party organizations and several others came very close to doing so.

These losses mean that the county political organizations can no longer guarantee a primary win for their endorsed candidates.

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