LD15 Assembly Candidate Jennifer Williams Garners Nearly 10,000 Votes
in Five-Way Race for Assembly!

Upon completion of the Hunterdon and Mercer County Clerk Offices completing their full count of 2019 General Election votes, Assembly LD15 Candidate Jennifer Williams has issued the following statement:

“As a first-time candidate for public office who campaigned against four opponents in her first election – I want to first thank everyone who voted for me, proudly displayed one of our campaign signs, knocked on doors for us, fearlessly dropped off literature in their neighborhoods and in other towns, stuffed or labeled or stamped envelopes and postcards, publicly lent their name to our campaign and talked us up in their own networks and/or simply believed in us and encouraged us to work as hard and smart as we could. Without you, any of our success does not happen.

I also want to thank the good people of Legislative District 15 and all my fellow New Jerseyans who made this campaign an amazing and joyful experience for me, my family and my team. Together, we made a great difference in making this an issues-driven Assembly campaign and not one based on political tribalism. I have learned a lot, fell even more in love with my home state and garnered an even greater appreciation for our ten municipalities – Ewing, Hopewell, Lawrence, Pennington, Trenton, West Windsor in Mercer; and East Amwell, Lambertville and West Amwell in Hunterdon County.

Additionally, as the first transgender candidate to ever be nominated to run for the New Jersey Legislature, this campaign race was the one I hoped for and expected – a race free of bigotry, hate and fear. I want to thank my own Republican Party and especially, the New Jersey State Republican Committee and Hunterdon and Mercer County Republican Committees, for supporting me and having such strong confidence in me as a candidate and as a person. I also want to thank my Democratic Party opponents, Assemblywoman Verlina Reynolds-Jackson and Assemblyman Anthony Verelli for not engaging in the ugly types of campaigns that other transgender candidates have had to go through in political campaigns in other parts of our country. How this New Jersey Assembly race was conducted can be an important lesson for future political campaigns around our country.

While I won’t have the chance to lead as an Assemblywoman, I look forward to helping engage our community on issues including Trenton Water Works, our runaway tax system, our stratified state economy, addictions and mental health treatment, criminal justice reform, and occupational licensing. As citizens, we all can get involved and work on these issues together in the future.  

I also strongly encourage my fellow LD15 voters to press our two Assembly representatives over the next two years to take on these challenging issues as well. I am looking forward to seeing what will happen in the Assembly for LD15 and will gladly try to work with Assemblyman Verelli and Assemblywoman Reynolds-Jackson wherever our interests align. I wish them the best of luck in their upcoming two-year term.

Be Well and Stay Jersey,

Jennifer Williams
Fmr. Assembly Candidate, LD15

 # # #