New Jersey’s Q1 congressional fundraising, by the numbers

As is often the case each cycle, the first fundraising quarter of 2024 – covering January 1 through March 31 – was when the state of play in many of New Jersey’s top races came into focus.

The state’s congressional candidates raised a total of $12.6 million during the 1st quarter, around the same as last year’s 4th quarter , and began April with a collective $56.3 million on-hand – but of course, that money isn’t distributed evenly. In some races, like the 7th district general election and the 8th district Democratic primary, the top candidates are neck-and-neck, indicating a highly competitive race; in others, like the open 3rd district Democratic primary and Senate primaries for both parties, there’s one candidate who has clearly broken away from the pack.

Since the candidate filing deadline was on March 25, it’s now set in stone who is and isn’t running in the primaries for New Jersey’s Senate seat and 12 House districts this year. Here’s how the campaign fundraising numbers shook out in each of those races.

Scroll to the bottom of this story for a spreadsheet with fundraising data in every race.

U.S. Senate (2024): The big, expensive showdown that New Jersey was bracing for in this year’s Democratic primary for U.S. Senate was short-circuited last month when First Lady Tammy Murphy, one of the two main Democratic candidates, unexpectedly ended her campaign .

That left Rep. Andy Kim (D-Moorestown) as the heavy frontrunner to succeed indicted Senator Bob Menendez, and he’s sure fundraising like it. Kim raised a mammoth $3,072,671 in the first three months of the year, and has $4.2 million on-hand. (Murphy, for her part, raised $1,462,534 before departing the race, and still has $2.1 million sitting in her campaign account.)

Kim’s two remaining Democratic primary opponents raised nowhere near those totals. Patricia Campos-Medina raised $303,754 – two-thirds of which was self-funded – while Larry Hamm raised just $13,175; both have very little money left to spend as they hurtle towards the June 4 primary.

On the Republican side, developer Curtis Bashaw’s first quarter in the race established him as the clear financial frontrunner. He raised $1,117,702 , $600,000 of which came from a personal loan; that’s less than the $2 million he originally pledged to raise, but still a huge total for a first-time candidate in a tough state for Republicans.

The one other serious Republican running, Mendham Borough Mayor Christine Serrano Glassner, was far, far behind Bashaw. She raised $136,773 , $100,000 of which was self-funded – meaning that she only raised a little over $36,000 from actual donors over the entire three-month quarter.

A third Republican candidate, former Tabernacle Committeeman Justin Murphy, barely registered with $6,450 raised; U.S. Navy veteran Albert Harshaw didn’t file any fundraising reports at all. Unless there’s a dramatic reversal in the next two months, Bashaw’s cash advantage – as well as his surplus of county organizational lines – should make him the favorite to win the GOP nomination.

Finally, there’s Menendez himself, who didn’t file to run in the primary election but who has threatened a potential independent campaign if he’s able to prove his innocence at his upcoming trial. The three-term senator certainly isn’t fundraising like a serious candidate; he raised $1,221 from donors during Q1 and spent around $600,000, mostly on his own legal defense. He still has a $5.7 million warchest, but that’s likely to be depleted further as his trial progresses.

1st district: Rep. Donald Norcross (D-Camden) raised $232,105 last quarter and ended with $1.5 million. He shouldn’t need to spend a dime of it to beat the splintered and underfunded field of GOP candidates who filed to run in the solidly Democratic 1st district.

The top Republican fundraiser in Q1 was carpenter Damon Galdo, who raised $9,199. U.S. Army veteran Teddy Liddell, who has the party line in Camden and Burlington Counties, raised $3,691; Claire Gustafson, the nominee for the same district in 2022 and 2020 and the Gloucester GOP’s choice this year, has not filed any reports at all.

2nd district: After a huge final fundraising quarter last year fueled by speculation that he might run for Senate, Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-Dennis) – who is in fact running for re-election to the House – raised a solid $379,702 in Q1 and has $968,549 on-hand.

His prospective Democratic opponents had less successful quarters. Tech entrepreneur Joe Salerno raised $120,650, around $55,000 of which was self-funded; engineer Carolyn Rush raised $110,059, including $100,000 in self-funding; and civil rights attorney Tim Alexander, the nominee for the same district in 2022, raised $52,664. Salerno has by far the most cash on-hand of the three, with $411,274.

Given that – as of now – there are no county lines in the Democratic primary this year, Salerno’s financial advantage may be enough to make him the favorite for the Democratic nomination. But whoever does win the primary will be the heavy underdog against Van Drew, who beat Alexander 59%-40% last time around.

3rd district: Assemblyman Herb Conaway (D-Delran) has long looked like the frontrunner in the race to succeed Kim in the 3rd congressional district, and this quarter’s fundraising reports corroborated that.

Conaway, who has the official party endorsement in each of the district’s counties, raised $318,631 and has $297,088 on-hand. That’s more than what all of his opponents raised combined : civil rights attorney Joe Cohn raised $126,584, Assemblywoman Carol Murphy (D-Mount Laurel) raised $74,064, and businesswoman Sarah Schoengood raised $21,768. (Cohn’s and Schoengood’s totals both include some self-funding.)

While the 3rd district leans Democratic, several Republican candidates are also running. The two top fundraisers in Q1 were physician Rajesh Mohan and immigration consultant Shirley Maia-Cusick, who self-funded their way to relative parity with one another: Mohan raised $107,615, $60,000 of which came from himself, while Maia-Cusick raised $117,361, $86,000 of which came from herself.

A third GOP candidate, Greg Sobocinski, raised $6,430; two other contenders, Republican Mike Faccone and Democrat Brian Schkeeper, haven’t reported raising anything at all.

4th district: Rep. Chris Smith (R-Manchester) had a fairly sleepy fundraising quarter, raising $92,281 and ending up with $400,148 on-hand.

But given that presumptive Democratic nominee Matt Jenkins raised $4,720, and Republican primary opponent David Schmidt hasn’t even filed with the Federal Election Commission, even a sleepy fundraising quarter is enough to re-elect Smith in his solidly Republican district.

5th district: Will Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-Wyckoff) ever let up from his money-raising spree? He certainly didn’t in the 1st quarter of this year, raising $1,369,047 and ending with $18.1 million in the bank. That appears to be the largest warchest of any member of the House; Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Illinois) is the next-closest, with $16.4 million.

It’s also just a little bit more money than his two Republican opponents, former county commissioner candidate Mary Jo Guinchard and Paramus school board member George Song, have available. Guinchard, who has the party line in most of the 5th district, raised $61,404 in the 1st quarter – nearly all of it self-funded – while Song raised $8,140.

6th district: Rep. Frank Pallone (D-Long Branch) continued his streak in Q1 as one of New Jersey’s most quietly prolific fundraisers, raising $485,917. The 18-term congressman now has nearly $3.3 million on-hand in the event that he should ever need to seriously fight to keep his seat.

He won’t need to this year; his Democratic primary opponent, climate change activist John Hsu, raised $1,235, while his likely Republican challenger, food importer Scott Fegler, raised $24,625. A second GOP candidate, Gregg Mele, did not report raising any money.

7th district: Big news in New Jersey’s most competitive congressional district: incumbent Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-Westfield) got outraised by his Democratic challenger, Sue Altman.

Only by the tiniest of margins, to be clear; Kean raised $579,707 and Altman raised $583,750 , a difference of just around four thousand dollars. And since Kean has been fundraising well for a full year now, he has a much larger warchest, leading Altman $2,395,291 to $913,939.

But the fact that Altman was able to beat Kean – after getting outraised by him nearly 2-1 in the 4th quarter of last year – is still notable. It’s another sign that the 7th district is going to host a hotly contested race this year, one that will likely draw millions of dollars in spending from the candidates themselves and from outside groups eager to hold or flip the House majority.

8th district: Altman was the only House challenger in the state to outraise an incumbent last quarter, but Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla came close in his race against Rep. Rob Menendez (D-Jersey City).

Menendez and Bhalla – who had outraised Menendez during Q4 of last year – were neck and neck in Q1, with Menendez raising $677,775 and Bhalla raising $649,077 . (A third Democratic candidate, real estate lender Kyle Jasey, was way behind with $4,648.) Thanks to high expenditures on Bhalla’s side, Menendez has a bit more money for the home stretch: $1,175,405 versus Bhalla’s $991,198.

Republicans aren’t a factor in the solidly Democratic 8th district, so the only fight either Menendez or Bhalla need to worry about is against one another; expect their millions to be dumped into lots of mailers and ads over the next two months.

9th district: Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-Paterson) faces an unusual primary challenge from Prospect Park Mayor Mohamed Khairullah this year, and the incumbent congressman has a clear financial upper hand. Pascrell raised $217,650 in Q1 and has $1.4 million in the bank; Khairullah raised $78,925 and has $65,206 left.

On the Republican side, the likely Republican nominee is Billy Prempeh, who was also the 2020 and 2022 nominee for the same seat. Prempeh raised just $3,446 in the 1st quarter – which is still more than off-the-line Republican Hector Castillo, who has not filed with the FEC.

10th district: The overwhelmingly Democratic 10th district is hosting what may be the state’s least interesting congressional election this year, with Rep. Donald Payne Jr. (D-Newark) and Republican Carmen Bucco both uncontested in their respective primary elections.

Neither blew the doors off in fundraising: Payne raised $99,585, in keeping with his usual modest quarters, while Bucco raised $6,150.

11th district: Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-Montclair) – who along with Gottheimer is looking at a potential gubernatorial bid in 2025 – raised $487,723 in Q1 and has built her warchest back up to a sizable $1.3 million.

Sherrill’s three Republican opponents all self-funded nearly their entire campaigns, but not to the anywhere near the extent they’d need to keep up with her. Party-backed building inspector Joseph Belnome gave himself $39,000, doctor Raafat Barsoom gave himself $20,000, and accountant John Sauers gave himself $5,000. A Democratic primary challenger, Mark De Lotto, has not filed with the FEC.

12th district: Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing) has three different challengers this year, but two of them – Democrat Daniel Dart and Republican Thomas Jones, both current or former school board members – haven’t bothered to file anything with the FEC.

That leaves Republican Darius Mayfield, the nominee against Watson Coleman in 2022, who raised just $4,591. Watson Coleman, for her part, raised $194,982 and has $281,485 on-hand in her safely Democratic seat.

U.S. Senate (2026): Senator Cory Booker has no challengers of either party on the horizon for his 2026 re-election bid, but that doesn’t mean his fundraising let up. Booker raised $496,569 in the 1st quarter and has just over $11 million on-hand, the second largest warchest in the state behind Gottheimer’s.