BY COLLEEN O'DEA

Hunterdon County has long been one of the most reliably Republican strongholds in New Jersey.

That changed a bit Tuesday night, though, as voters delivered mixed results for top Republican candidates.

County Clerk Mary Melfi and Commissioner Shaun Van Doren won re-election, though by smaller margins than would normally have been expected. But Republican Rep. Tom Kean Jr. lost the county by 9 points, contributing to the loss of his seat.

Going into this year’s general election, the GOP held every county office and most municipal seats. It’s had the occasional federal representative and current has three Democrats representing a portion of Hunterdon in the state Legislature, but that’s only because those districts stretch into other, more Democratic areas. Registered Republicans outnumber Democrats by about 12,000 or 11 points.

But the early voting numbers through Sunday had about 4,000 more Democrats voting than Republicans, which had given the Democratic candidates hope and worried the Republicans.

Republicans typically don’t worry about winning a county like Hunterdon. But going into Election Day, Melfi had wondered if she had done enough to convince unaffiliated voters, who she might need to win.

It turns out she did, and she probably got some Democratic votes, too. Melfi was the top Republican vote-getter, with 32,245 or nearly 55% in the unofficial tally reported Tuesday night. She defeated Caitlin Giles-McCormick by almost 10 points. Van Doren’s apparent win was much tighter, defeating Democrat Jason Blazakis by about 800 votes. Provisional ballots and late-arriving mail-in votes are not included in the totals.

“I’m relieved,” Melfi said as she processed the final county vote tally to post online. “I’m very thankful the voters of Hunterdon County recognized the hard work of this office. I thank them for their support.”

At a victory party at The Union Hotel across the street from the clerk’s office in Flemington, Melfi said she was “so happy to be your clerk again!

But it wasn’t the easy victory that Republicans usually enjoy in Hunterdon.

The Democrats put up a real fight in this year’s county races.

Democratic campaign mailers in Hunterdon are almost unheard of, but this year, the New Jersey Democratic State Committee paid for two mailers for the Democratic candidates for Blazakis and Giles-McCormick, including attacks on the incumbents. The New Jersey Republican Party sent out twice as many promoting incumbents Van Doren and Melfi and attacking the Democrats, especially Blazakis, calling him “too RADICAL for Hunterdon County.” The Hunterdon County Republican Committee also funded a video promoting the two candidates.

The job of county commissioners is more recognizable to citizens and voters; similar to a municipal council, the commissioners draft a budget, levy taxes, repair roads, preserve open space and take other similar actions. The job of clerk is more administrative, though may have more contact with the public. It includes some election-related duties, such as sending mail-in ballots and reporting results, processing passport applications and overseeing certain property records.

It was noteworthy that Hunterdon’s property records are not online became a major election issue in a year when affordability was the top issue nationally.

Modernizing the clerk’s office, including by making access to records easier while still protecting personal information, was one of Giles-McCormick’s major pledges.

“There’s a list of things I want to bring up to date,” she said on the eve of the election.

Melfi sent out her own mailer, explaining her reasons for not putting property records online – to protect homeowners from fraud. She said she made a “conscious decision” to keep the records offline after consulting with law enforcement as a way to prevent cybercrime. She acknowledged that it may be inconvenient to have to visit the clerk’s office in person to find documents, but added, “It’s inconvenient to thieves.”

Giles-McCormick, a former Flemington councilwoman who works for the state Economic Development Authority, said she ran because her work has been in logistics, administration and databases and supports voter education and outreach. The early 14-point margin from Democratic voters had her feeling “cautiously optimistic” on Monday of pulling out an upset win. That early lead was higher than the Democratic sheriff and commissioner challengers had last year. Still, Republican voters prefer to go out on Election Day, and in 2025, the county GOP candidates outpolled their rivals by between 8,000 and 10,000 day-of votes, depending on the race, leading them to easy wins.

“Every year, the gap between Democrats and Republicans closes,” Giles-McCormick said.

Indeed, the number of registered Democrats in Hunterdon increased by more than 50% over the last decade, compared to an 18% increase for Republicans.

But this year, with widespread anti-Trump sentiment and the crucial 7^th District race – considered a must-win for both political parties to control the U.S. House of Representatives next year – attracting attention, seemed to give Democrats an even greater potential boost.

“The 7^th District race is a huge engagement point,” Giles-McCormick said. “We absolutely benefitted from that race.”

Democrat Rebecca Bennett, who challenged two-term Republican Rep. Tom Kean Jr., spent more time campaigning in Hunterdon and her campaign and groups supporting her sent more mailers to Hunterdon homes in the last months of the campaign than in 2024. Giles-McCormick said she thought Bennett’s background – including past military service and mother of two – resonated with many voters.

But Melfi is well-known throughout the county and the state. She is also a past president of the NJ Association of Counties and past-president and former treasurer of the Constitutional Officers Association of New Jersey (COANJ). She currently serves as the COANJ legislative liaison, working with lawmakers and testifying on bills under consideration by the state Legislature. Melfi will begin a fifth five-year term in January. Before being elected clerk, she served on the Flemington council from 1994 to 2006 and also served on the borough planning board. She is the vice president of the 200 Hunterdon Club and an active longtime member of American Legion Post 159 Ladies Auxiliary.

In an interview with InsiderNJ last month, Melfi described her tenure as “accessible, responsible, knowledgeable.” She is known for working with Democrats on legislation and election-related issues. When she last ran in 2021, she was unopposed and got more than 43,000 votes. But this year, she acknowledged that the Kean-Bennett contest was a “hot potato” that drew a larger turnout than a traditional congressional race. It turned out Melfi polled