Antoinette Miles, State Director, New Jersey Working Families Party

To: WFP NJ State Committee, WFP Staff

Re: Our Work in the Historic New Jersey Primary Election

Friends,

Today is New Jersey’s primary, and I’m proud of the work that New Jersey Working Families Party has undertaken over the past several years. Our work has led to fundamental reforms of New Jersey’s electoral system, which has helped reshape the campaign for Governor and has put us on the precipice of propelling a historic number of progressive candidates to the General Assembly in an election where the power of county party organizations is being tested for the first time.

Eradication of the county line leads to a historically competitive Governor’s race.

Today marks the first-in-a-generation primary election, where both Democratic and Republican voters will vote in a primary free of the county line ballot, a day the political establishment never thought was possible.

Years of deliberate advocacy and an effective legal strategy culminated last year with the abolition of the corrupt county line in the Democratic primary, an undemocratic practice that gave political insiders favorable treatment on primary ballots and effectively locked prospective challengers, resulting in notoriously uncompetitive elections.

NJ WFP and allied organizations led the fight to eradicate the county line system because it fundamentally blocked any chance of governing power for working people.

We’re no longer in the era of choiceless primaries or predetermined elections where election winners are chosen at political party conventions. The end of the county line means fairer ballots and a historically competitive gubernatorial race with a slew of strong candidates seeking the Democratic nomination. And, there are early indicators that this year’s turnout is outpacing last year’s primary election turnout.

This is the highest profile gubernatorial primary election since the 2024 presidential primary, meaning that the nation is looking to New Jersey for a playbook for the Democratic response to Trump.

While we knew Mayor Baraka would face a difficult race in a crowded field, the NJ WFP felt that he was the best candidate to build a multiracial working class coalition, deliver for people across New Jersey that the Democratic Party has left behind, and respond to authoritarian threats at the federal level.

In a historic joint move, WFP endorsed him alongside six labor unions and movement organizations to unite a powerful coalition of working people from all backgrounds behind Mayor Baraka. And together, 32BJ SEIU, Rutgers AAUP-AFT, Workers United Joint Board, NJ Citizen Action, and Make the Road Action organized a coordinated voter contact operation for Baraka.

Our endorsement was a clarion call to the progressive movement to unite behind an unapologetically progressive candidate for Governor who will be committed to lowering costs for working people and forcefully push back against the Trump administration’s attacks on immigrants, healthcare, vulnerable communities, and other critical issues.

Throughout this cycle, Baraka has kept pace with his opponents, often polling within the margin of error of his nearest competitors in the top tier of candidates, and frequently outpacing former Senate President Steve Sweeney.

He has opposed Trump’s cruel agenda at every turn, culminating in his arrest by the Trump Administration at Delaney Hall, which sent shockwaves throughout the country. While some moderate Democrats in the race have lacked substance on policies to help lower costs for working people, Baraka has been unequivocal in his commitments to make the wealthiest in our state pay their fair share, fund public transit, build affordable housing, support a public healthcare option, and raise the minimum wage to $21 an hour.

In a crowded field, this will be a close race. Regardless of the outcome, the demand for elected leaders who center working people in their policies is strong. NJ WFP is committed to building a united front to ensure the Republicans and the MAGA-right are blocked from taking power in November.

Historic wins for progressive State Assembly candidates

The impact of the end of the county line can be felt even more strongly in down-ballot races. This election marks a first-in-a-generation competitive primary election, with all 80 legislative seats in the State Assembly on the ballot and a record number of candidates running for legislative seats — the highest in at least 50 years.

At the outset of this election, WFP approached this cycle with the goals of disrupting the status quo in Trenton by electing leaders determined to fight for working people and holding incumbents accountable for contemptible votes that undermined public records access and government transparency in the prior legislative session.

NJ WFP was proud to endorse a slate of thirteen legislative candidates in eleven races who have a real chance to both secure the nomination and be victorious in November. In this election, NJ WFP supported voter contact programs from deep-blue Hudson County to the more Southern counties, including districts where the Democratic Party has ceded ground to Republicans. And, we’re showing up in some of the most high-profile and most competitive races in the state, including in Districts 32 and 37.

In addition to supporting a majority of grassroots, first-time candidates, we supported three incumbents who have amassed a track record of championing supporting progressive policies in Trenton.

We knew we would be facing a primary where powerful forces would do everything to prevent us from gaining power. Independent expenditure groups Middle Ground PAC, tied to the Middlesex County Democratic Organization and Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin; American Representative Majority Super PAC, tied to South Jersey power broker George Norcross; and Hudson Votes Project, linked to the Hudson County Democratic Organization; have spent on mailers, digital, and TV to protect establishment candidates.

NJ WFP is no stranger to being outspent and taking on entrenched establishment figures. We’ve been in that position before, and we’ve won. We’re confident that we can do it again here.

And let’s be clear: The election of even a handful of these candidates in today’s primary has the potential to send ripples across New Jersey’s political landscape and reshape the way Trenton works.

Not only will NJ WFP have a core group of legislators in office committed to advancing an agenda on behalf of working families, we will also have demonstrated that working people-centered candidates have the ability to prevail will compete and win in competitive elections — setting the stage for us to achieve future electoral and policy victories in years to come.