>> From NJ PBS studios, this is NJ Spotlight News with Brianna Vannozzi.

>> Hello, and thanks for joining us tonight.

I'm Joanna Gaggis.

Brianna Vannozzi is off.

>>> Coming up, it's primary day here in New Jersey.

We talk with strategists on both sides of the aisle about what their party stands to gain and lose today.

Plus, making history.

I recently spoke with Belleville's youngest and first Latino to be elected mayor about his big win.

But first, what do we know about early voting numbers and who's turning out to the polls?

We'll take a look.

That's next.

Major funding for NJ Spotlight News is provided in part by NJM Insurance Group, serving the insurance needs of residents and businesses for more than 100 years.

It's election day, primary day that is.

New Jersey is one of six states holding its primary election today.

There will be races up and down the ballot from a US Senate seat all the way down to local and county positions.

Our senior writer and projects editor Colleen O'Day has been tracking the early voting and she's here to share what she knows so far.

Hi Colleen, so you are our elections guru.

I want to just first get a sense of who's actually on the ballot today when it comes to federal races here in New Jersey.

Yeah, so every incumbent is on the ballot except for Bonnie Watson Coleman in the 12th district.

She's retiring.

Democrats in four districts, incumbent Democrats are facing challenges.

There are not many challenges on the Republican side.

Cory Booker, of course, tops the balloting as the U.S.

Senator.

He's got no opposition, and there are four Republicans running against him.

And then there are races in most of the other districts.

We're going to break down who some of those races, you know, include, and we're going to get into a bit of the politics there.

But when we look at just voting trends, voter turnout has seemed to be on somewhat of an upward trajectory in recent elections based on early voting.

What do we know so far just in terms of turnout?

Yeah, so as of the end of day yesterday, so these are pretty up-to-date numbers, about 385,000 New Jerseyans voted early.

The majority of those voted by mail or either mailing it in or putting it in a drop box.

And there was also six days of early in-person voting.

And we saw a pretty typical turnout.

You know, early in-person voting wound up being a huge thing for the presidential race in 2026 -- 2024, excuse me.

But other than that, especially in primaries, it hasn't been a great turnout.

And of those who have voted, almost 80% are Democrats, which is probably a little bit higher than what we're used to.

But it's, you know, it's mostly Democrats who vote early.

I was going to ask you, Colleen, if we're seeing any divergence from those patterns where we know early in-person voting did tend to turn out a lot of Republican voters, but the early mail-in ballots still tend to be Democratic.

That's still following the same trend?

Yes, except that the Republicans really didn't make a great showing even in the early in-person voting.

And that could be for a couple reasons.

You know, for one thing, there are not many House Republican primaries, contested primaries.

There's only a couple of those.

Now, the Senate race does have a contested primary.

There just doesn't seem to have been an awful lot of enthusiasm about that race.

None of the candidates has had an awful lot of money.

I don't know if people kind of know this history in New Jersey where we have not elected a Republican to the U.S.

Senate since the 1970s.

So whoever wins is going to have an uphill battle against Cory Booker.

Yeah.

Talk us through who is actually in that primary race against U.S.

He's now our senior U.S.

Senator, Cory Booker.

Who's running to challenge him?

Right.

So we've got a former News 12 New Jersey anchor.

He's a political commentator now, Alex Zidan.

We've got a state trooper, Richard Tabor.

We've got a doctor, and we've got Justin Murphy, a former Robert Liebowitz, excuse me, is the doctor.

And Justin Murphy is a former Tabernacle Council member.

Is there any way to tell right now, based on fundraising, based on any polling that you've seen, who is in the lead there in that primary?

It's so hard.

You know, nobody's been doing... So, polls are expensive to do, is one thing to acknowledge.

And nobody's done a poll in that race, again, I think because there hasn't been an awful lot of enthusiasm about it.

I mean, Libavix has been leading money-wise, but Tabor and Zidane have at least some of the party backing in different Republican parties from across the state.

So I mean, it really seems like it could be anybody's race at this point.

We've covered two of these congressional races.

In District 12, we know Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman is retiring.

And there are 12 people who are running to replace her.

13, though, will appear on the ballot.

One dropped out after those were printed.

But can you talk about who's in the lead there and who's showing the strongest edge, if there is one right now?

Yeah, this is another race where we don't have any independent polling, I should say.

Different candidates do their own polling.

So Adam Hamaway, he's a doctor, and he is credited with saving Tammy Duckworth, US Senator Tammy Duckworth's life, when she was injured in the, in the war a few years back in the Middle East.

He also though, has, or at least had an affiliation with the blind shake who was charged, I think and convicted of masterminding the first bombing of the World Trade Center, way back 30 plus years ago.

But he's got the most money he's the only candidate that I've seen who's been actually on the airwaves.

So he is certainly considered one of the front runners.

But you've got a lot of other people in there.

You've got the mayor of Plainfield, Adrian Mapp.

You've got Sue Altman, who ran two years ago in the 7th District.

She's, you know, a progressive darling.

You've got Sam Wang, who is a Princeton professor and who I'm told is kind of considered a rock star down in Princeton in that area.

So, you know, you've got, you also have Brad Cohen and Assemblywoman Verlina Reynolds Jackson.

I'm trying to remember all the names.

There are so many of them.

>>> That's okay.

There are so many.

We're, yeah.

We don't have a lot of time left.

I know in District 7, Congressman Tom Kane Jr.

is being challenged by four.

It looks like Rebecca Bennett has a very strong lead.

Just quickly, can you talk us through who's running to take on Congressman Jeff Van Drew, Republican down in the 2nd District?

Yeah, so you know that there are four Democrats running there.

You've got Tim Alexander who's run a couple times already, been unsuccessful.

He's gotten some party support.

Zach Mullock is the mayor of Cape May.

You've got Terry Reese, a progressive candidate.

And then you've got Bailey Winder who is young, a former State Department employee who seems to have the most money and been spending the most there, doing the most campaigning.

So it's that's another race that's really a toss-up.

Too close to call.

We'll be watching.

I know you'll be covering it and bringing us the latest numbers as they come in.

Colleen O'Day, senior writer, projects editor, and all things elections guru for us.

Thank you.

Thanks so much, Joanna.

Well, it's decision day for a number of close primary races we've been following, and the question to ask, what do these races signal about the current political climate?

And could New Jersey expect any upset victories?

Of course, whoever wins today will go on to the midterms in November.

And as these races take shape, there's still the backdrop of unrest at Delaney Hall, which has become a flashpoint in political discussions.

I'm joined by two strategists to talk it all through, Republican Jeanette Hoffman and Democrat Dan Bryan.

Jeanette, Dan, thank you both so much for being with us today.

I want to start with the races that will be decided today.

First, there are two hotly contested races in the House right now.

There is a third down in District 2, Congressman Jeff Gandrieu's district.

There's a primary going on there.

But Dan, I want to start in District 7.

I know you've been advising the campaign of Rebecca Bennett, who right now appears to be in the lead in the primary to take on Congressman Tom Kane Jr.

Does she hold that lead, do you believe, right now going into this election day and in this election day?

I think Jeanette can agree with me.

There's nothing less fun than giving your opinion hours before the polls close.

So all I can do is look silly, but listen, we certainly feel very good.

The polls have all been very strong.

The response to Rebecca's campaign and her candidacy has been tremendous.

I think she's a fantastic candidate who's run a really good race.

A few other really good candidates in the race as well.

Brian Varela has kind of been more in the progressive lane.

Michael Roth as well, and Tina Shah has kind of leaned on her background as a doctor.

So listen, I do think Rebecca is going to come out, but I think whoever comes out is going to be a very strong candidate against Tom Kane Jr., who is amongst the most vulnerable Republican incumbents in the country.

Let me just follow up on that.

So you believe that even if a more progressive candidate were to win today, they have a solid chance to beat the congressman?

I do think Rebecca Bennett's going to be the candidate.

I think if she is the candidate, I think Tom Kane's in very big trouble.

If that's not the outcome, we'll take it as we see it, but I think Rebecca would be the favorite to win this election in November.

Jeanette, this has become a national discussion, really.

It's gotten national attention.

Where in the world is Congressman Tom Kane Jr.?

Is he as vulnerable as Dan believes he is, in your mind, from your party's perspective?

- Well, certainly this is going to be a very competitive year, with the House majority held by only three seats by Republicans.

So every seat is important, and this is one of them.

Listen, Congressman Kane has had some unfortunate health issues that's taken him out of voting for the past several weeks now.

We expect him to make a full recovery.

I've known Tom for decades.

He's been a great public servant, whether it's in the state legislature or in Congress.

Everyone here really wishes him well.

But this district has gotten more Republican over the past several years due to redistricting.

Progressive candidate Sue Altman, who is now running in the 12th District, not the 7th, ran against him two years ago and didn't even come close.

So I think he's going to be safe.

He has a great record of constituent relations, serving this district really well, and has a great history of public service.

So, you know, while I understand that it's going to be heavily targeted by the Democrats, in the end, I think Tom's going to prevail.

>> You raise a good point.

Right now, there are just under 19,000 more Republicans in the district than Democrats.

But even some Republicans are scratching their heads saying where is he.

I do want to ask, have you spoken to him since his exit in March from voting?

I personally have not.

I know his dad has talked to reporters and said he's under a doctor's care.

I've heard that the Congressman himself a couple weeks ago has spoken to some Republican County chairs and said he expects to make a full return in a couple weeks.

So everyone's eagerly waiting for him to get well and get back to Congress.

But again, he's under a doctor's care, so no one wants anyone to suffer health issues like the Congressman has.

But fortunately, he looks like he's getting back to work very soon.

And let's look at District 12, where there are 12 candidates in the race, a 13th on the ballot.

Voters who weren't paying attention may end up just voting for that 13th.

This is a much more progressive district, home to Bonnie Watson Coleman, the congresswoman who's retiring.

Whose message there seems to be resonating more?

Do you have a sense, given such a crowded field, who might pull out ahead?

Yeah, listen, I think there's it's another field where I think we have a lot of really good candidates.

And to your point, I think we've got as many candidates as there is in the district.

It's 12 candidates in CD12, which is fairly crazy.

I think that clearly Adam Homoy seems like he's in the driver's seat going into Election Day.

Sue Altman, I think, is a fantastic candidate, really good person.

She certainly could pull off the upset.

There's a few others that are hanging around the hoop there, like Verlina Reynolds-Jackson, like Brad Cohen, that I think can be strong candidates as well.

But listen, when you have such a diffuse field like this, you know, the winner is probably going to have 18%, 20% of the vote.

And you're seeing Adam Homoy putting together the same coalition that delivered on a little Liam he had a victory in CD 11 with Bernie Sanders with AOC Ro Khanna, all these kind of national progressives.

So, um, you know, I think that they feel comfortable about a win today.

Sue Altman is a fantastic candidate, a really hard worker.

I think she's right up there as well.

And we've got a few other establishment candidates that have been elected officials in the past, whether they currently are or not, who are going to put together what I think is going to be a strong performance today.

But, you know, in a field where in an election where, you know, 20%, you're probably running away with the election, putting together the type of coalition that Hamoi has, looks like it might deliver to victory tonight.

Do you think this one could be too close to call by the end of today?

You know, because we count the vote by mail early now and because we know what the vote by mail count is by eight o'clock, we haven't had a whole lot of close calls.

I think the only exception to that rule has been CD11, when the election was famously called for Malinowski early, and then they uncalled it and it took about a week to call it for Anna Lilja.

Most other elections have been called pretty quickly, if we remember back to the 2025 gubernatorial primary.

We all thought that we were going to be in for hours, if not days, to figure out a winner.

We had a winner by, I think, 8-10.

So, you know, it never goes how we think it will, right?

Jeanette, just quickly, there are four Republicans trying to take on U.S.

Senator Cory Booker.

It's been decades since a Republican held any Senate seat in New Jersey.

Do any of them have a chance?

Who's got the strongest message?

What are Republicans - have any of them been able to galvanize Republicans behind them?

BALL: Well, I think this is Alex Zidane's primary race to lose right now.

He has most of the organizational support and he has, you know, galvanized a lot of the grassroots support to take on Cory Booker, someone who's out of touch with most New Jersey voters.

So, listen, Republicans haven't won a U.S.

Senate seat since 1972.

I don't need to tell you that.

And Cory Booker has been -- has had high approval ratings in New Jersey.

So it will be an uphill battle.

But you never say never.

And it's always important to field good candidates.

And I think one of the things he's going to be talking about is, how much time has Cory Booker spent in New Jersey, versus how much time he's spent in other states running for president.

And, certainly, it is on everyone's radar screen that Cory Booker may be running for president once again.

But, you know, if I could just chime in back to the 12th District, if Adam Hemway runs and wins this primary election, I think it's going to be a real problem for the Democratic Party.

We talk about how far left this Democratic Party has gone.

I think he's one of the most radical candidates in the entire country.

He's very anti-Israel and has made a lot of questionable statements.

And there's new reports that he actually worked for an Al-Qaeda front group.

So it's I really think, you know, when the Democratic Party nationally has an anti-Semitism problem, and I'm not just saying that, Democrats nationally have said that, Adam Hemway is not the person you want to be the poster child for the Democratic Party.

We don't have a lot of time left.

I just have to ask you both, give me the shortest answer you can.

Dan, do you think that the happenings at Delaney Hall this week will have an impact on the election?

Jeanette, same question right to you as well.

Dan, go ahead.

I don't.

Listen, they're very serious events and we should be taking them seriously and I think Mikey Sherrill has done a fantastic job being at the helm and that through.

Do I think it's going to affect this election today?

I don't.

She has gotten a lot of criticism from the more progressive side, folks who are there who are not happy that she deployed state police.

Jeanette, on the Republican side, do you think that this turns out any more voters seeing what's been happening?

Yeah, I mean, I think some of the lawlessness and the out-of-state agitators that are being arrested, if you look at the 61 people who were just recently arrested, most of them were from out of state.

So I think this does galvanize the Republican base a little bit to say, what is going on here and all this lawlessness that's happening in our home state?

So in a way, it could galvanize more Republicans to turn up at the polls today.

We have to leave it there.

Jeanette Hoffman, Dan Bryan, thank you as always for your perspectives.

Thank you guys.

Thanks for having us.

The township of Belleville has a new mayor-elect and he's breaking records in many ways.

At just 24 years old, Frank Velez is the youngest person to ever serve in the role and he's also the first Latino ever elected to the position.

But despite his age, Velez brings a wealth of political experience to the mayor's office.

He joins us now to talk about it.

Mayor-elect, great to have you with us.

Congratulations on a huge win.

Thank you.

Thank you so much and thank you for the invitation to come on the show today.

Yeah, it's great to have you.

You really kept the trifecta of youngest roles here when we look at your trajectory politically.

The youngest person ever elected to the Belleville Board of Education at just 19 years old, then the youngest councilman at 22 years old, now the youngest mayor, and of course the first Latino mayor in the town.

Let me just first ask you, what drew you into politics so young?

Thank you.

It is definitely been a journey.

For me, I've always been really interested in politics.

And it's always been something that has been important to my family and I, you know, growing up and just seeing all the things that happen in politics around the world.

It's always been something that's inspired me.

But, you know, specifically close to home, I really wanted to be involved because I wanted to make a difference for you know, my neighbors, my friends, my families, and families like mine.

I have a younger sister with special needs.

So that's always been a really big factor for anything that I do in public service.

And generally, it's just to be more understanding, just really pushing that accessibility just for everybody.

Everybody deserves a seat at the table.

And that's really what motivates me every single day.

You ran on a platform of affordability, strengthening schools.

You're looking to stop overdevelopment in the town.

I'm curious what you believe resonated most with your constituents, soon-to-be constituents.

You are sworn in on July 1st.

Why do you think they chose you over the incumbent Michael Melham?

Look, I think we had an issue-driven campaign, not one that ran on making issues out of others.

This was a campaign that was focused, again, as you said, on overdevelopment, affordability, and just speaking to people where they are and meeting them where they are.

And I think that for us and for the township, it was about turning a page and moving forward.

And it was about really setting an agenda for the future, not the past.

I think it was really, really a big thing that we saw.

So I think it was really talking about the issues, but also setting a vision forward.

Right.

It wasn't just about talking about what anyone had done, you know, four years ago, eight years ago, et cetera.

It was about setting a path forward.

You know, people want to know.

What is your vision for Belville?

Yeah, so my vision, our vision as a team is about getting back to the basics, you know, getting back to the quality of life, the streets, the sidewalks, the development and making it work for the people here in this town and doing everything we can to help our schools, right?

These are the things that people feel every single day and this is what really impacts the community.

And this is really the kind of environment that we have control over as a council is the quality of life, is the thing that you feel every single day.

And it does decide whether or not somebody wants to move into the town and stay in the town.

It's interesting that you say that because I can't help but notice that many of your agenda items are tied to state policy.

They're tied to state legislation from improving schools, that's tied to school funding, you know, development, tied to laws that are set by the state legislature and governor when it comes to how much a municipality is responsible to build.

What do you believe is within your control within the Township of Belleville?

So I think those are really great points.

And when we talk about how we as a township can help out when it comes to the development when it comes out to the school system.

We have a lot of control right so when it comes to the development, what you're referencing is the Mount Laurel doctrine, and in Belleville specifically, we actually are exempt from what many municipalities have where they have to build, you know, hundreds and hundreds of hundreds of more units to fit into the quota.

We actually are qualified as an urban a municipality.

And what that means is that we have more flexibility in our development because our main responsibility is really the upgrading of existing units, right?

That's that's our main concern.

So we have more flexibility when it comes to development.

And that's why I believe that we are at a unique point where we can really shape the development to be more community focused and just have more perspective and ability on that.

When we're talking about the school system, really making again the development work for our schools and inviting our schools to the table.

And when we talk about pilots and other developer agreements.

Yeah, those pilots I know are hurting a lot of districts in many ways because they don't get the tax income and then that comes against them in the school funding formula.

It's complicated.

But just to take a quick step back you beyond the work that you've done in Belleville, you also worked as a staffer for the late representative Bill Pascrell.

I'm curious what skills or lessons about politics that taught you that you're bringing now into this role.

Yeah, you know, working for our late congressman was truly an honor for me.

And I can tell you, he was all about the ground, the people, being there at every moment and doing everything you can to help someone, you know, wherever they're from, whoever they are, their last name.

And I think he really taught me the importance of retail politics, right?

Of being there, being accessible, never turning someone away, and always being a man of the people.

And he always fondly said it, one of the best jobs he ever held in his life was mayor of Patterson.

And I think I'm really going to follow Sue in the lessons that he taught me about, you know, again, never pushing anyone away, always being there, and always being someone who's willing to listen and to work, right?

Because as mayor, you might not have all the answers, but you have access to the people who do.

And it's about making sure that everyone feels cared for and everyone feels that they are getting the attention they deserve.

Let me just jump in just a little bit of time left.

Your predecessor got some criticism for his handling of the fire that happened, the communication after the fire, I should say, that massive warehouse fire.

Is there anything that you've learned from that which may have turned the tide and got even more supporters out for you during the election?

Any takeaways there?

Just a little bit of time left.

Right.

So I'm just gonna speak generally.

I think our first responders did a great job and our emergency personnel.

I think obviously there are always rooms for improvement, but I want to make sure that they get the praise that they deserve.

And I want to make it clear that I will work with our first responders, with our emergency crews, going forward and doing everything I can to communicate as much as possible.

I'm very active on social media and I want to continue that activity and do everything I can to communicate with residents in real time.

But generally, I'm going to say that our first responders, our emergency personnel, did a great job and we should all be proud of them.

I look forward to working with them in the future.

All right.

Frank Velez, the new Frankie V from Belleville, not the Frankie Valley.

Frank Velez, mayor-elect.

You'll be sworn in on July 1st.

Congratulations.

Thanks for taking some time.

Thank you so much and have a great day.

Thank you.

That's going to do it for us tonight.

I'm Joanna Gaggis for the entire team here at NJ Spotlight News.

Thanks for watching.

We'll see you right back here tomorrow.

New Jersey Education Association, making public schools great for every child.

And RWJBarnabas Health.

Learn more at RWJBH.org.

Our students face challenges we never did.

So across New Jersey, parents and educators show up for our kids every single day.

Together, we've built the best public schools in the nation through innovation and inclusion, hard work, cooperation, and mutual respect.

Working together for every child's future because we have the same goal, giving our students the support, opportunity, and education they need to succeed in school and in life.

[music]