What Is on the Ballot in New Jersey: Booker, Murphy and All 12 House Seats on Tuesday
Every New Jersey voter gets the same top of the ballot on Tuesday - a U.S. Senate race with four candidates - and then a House race that depends on the district, led by the 7th District fight between Thomas Kean Jr. and Rebecca Bennett and an open seat in the 12th.
Start at the top, because the top is the same everywhere in New Jersey. Voters on Tuesday choose a United States senator, and the Division of Elections' official candidate list carries four names: Democratic incumbent Cory Booker, who is seeking another term; Republican Justin Murphy; Veronica Fernandez, running under the End the Corruption designation; and Joanne Kuniansky of the Socialist Workers Party. It is the only federal race that appears on every ballot in the state, and it lands in a Senate that Republicans currently control 53 to 45, with two independents caucusing with the Democrats.
Below it, all 12 of New Jersey's seats in the U.S. House are on the ballot, and three districts carry the cycle's real contests. In the 7th District - all or parts of Hunterdon, Morris, Somerset, Sussex, Union and Warren counties - Republican incumbent Thomas Kean Jr. faces Democratic nominee Rebecca Bennett in the race drawing the most national attention in the state. The 12th District has no incumbent at all: Democrat Adam Hamawy and Republican Gregg Mele are the major-party nominees, with Green Party candidate Andres Jinete and independent Winston Jordan also on the ballot. And in the 11th, Democratic Rep. Analilia Mejia, who won the district's April special election, faces Republican Joe Hathaway again, with Alan Bond also running.
There is no governor's race this year - New Jersey elected its governor in 2025 - and the Division of Elections' general election page lists no statewide public question, though local questions appear in the towns that have them. County offices such as clerk, sheriff and commissioner, municipal races and school board seats fill out the rest of the ballot, and they vary by county. The surest guide to any individual ballot is the sample ballot: county clerks mail one to active registered voters before the election, and it shows both the voter's races and the voter's polling place.
The mechanics have not changed since the early-voting explainers this desk has carried all week. In-person early voting ends today, Sunday, at 6 p.m.; a mail ballot can still be requested in person at the county clerk until 3 p.m. on Monday; and on Tuesday the polls are open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m., at each voter's assigned polling place.
