Assembly Democrats went into Election Day just hoping to play solid defense.
On a solid night, they would’ve held all their Assembly seats. On a great night, Democrats would’ve picked up two or three. They ended up nabbing five. Now, Assembly Democrats enter 2026 with the strongest majority they’ve possessed since they delivered a whooping in 1973, in the immediate aftermath of the Watergate scandal.
Some Democrats caught the Democratic wave, and Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill helped pilot them to victory. Others, particularly those in the 3rd legislative district, ran several points ahead of Sherrill in keeping their seats.
The following maps visualize the playing field of New Jersey’s most competitive legislative races. The maps feature unofficial data, and the margins may shift slightly as counties continue to finalize results. Not all important results are featured in this article; Democrats expected tough challenges in the 4th, 11th, 16th, 36th, and 38th legislative districts, but they won in landslides. And the 23rd, 26th, 39th, and 40th districts were seen as safe ground for Republicans, but the results there were unexpectedly close.
When results are certified, the New Jersey Globe will publish maps of all 40 legislative districts.
LD-2
In perhaps the biggest surprise of the night, a Democrat flipped an Assembly seat in the 2nd legislative district, an Atlantic County district that few thought would be in play.
Maureen Rowan, a retired attorney, unseated two-term Assemblywoman Claire Swift (R-Margate), the New Jersey Globe projected on Thursday afternoon. The other Republican incumbent, Assemblyman Don Guardian (R-Atlantic City), won the most votes and secured re-election, making the 2nd one of three districts to send split Assembly delegations to Trenton next year.
Though Guardian led the pack, the Democrats received more votes combined. Rowan and her running mate, Pleasantville Councilwoman Joanne Famularo, edged out their Republican opponents by a couple of hundred votes.
The Democrats netted the vast majority of their votes in Atlantic City and Pleasantville. That was always going to be the case — the two heavily Black and Latino municipalities are the only towns in the district that reliably vote blue. And huge jumps in turnout in those towns further aided the Democrats. From 2021, voter turnout increased in Atlantic City by 27% and in Pleasantville by more than 44%.
The Democratic Assembly candidates also squeaked out a victory in Hamilton and cut down the margins in Egg Harbor Township and Galloway, the two vote-heaviest towns in the district.
Guardian, a former mayor of Atlantic City, outperformed Swift throughout the district, especially in Atlantic City and Galloway. Guardian received 2,776 votes in Atlantic City, while Swift received 2,408; the nearly 370-vote difference accounted for more than a quarter of the separation between the pair, which opened a rift for Rowan and Famularo to slip into.
Sherrill beat Republican Jack Ciattarelli by almost nine percentage points; her momentum surely helped Rowan over the finish line. The district has consistently voted for Democrats in presidential races (though Kamala Harris’ two-point margin was much slimmer than Joe Biden’s 12-point margin), but Ciattarelli won the 2nd by nearly seven points in 2021. This year, heavy turnout in Atlantic City and Pleasantville combined with leftward swings in the rest of the district to create a strong night for Atlantic County Democrats.
LD-3
Democrats entered the year simply playing defense, spending very little on attempts to gain new seats. No Democratic-controlled district was seen as more vulnerable than the South Jersey 3rd, where Assemblymembers Dave Bailey (D-Woodstown) and Heather Simmons (D-Glassboro) narrowly won re-election.
The Democrats faced stiff competition in Gloucester County Commissioner Chris Konawel (R-Glassboro) and Harrison Deputy Mayor Lawrence Moore. Ciattarelli won the district by nearly 16 points in 2021, helping catapult an unknown truck driver past the state Senate president. If a similar environment repeated itself in 2025, even the vaunted South Jersey Democratic machine would have a hard time protecting its incumbents in the 3rd.
Instead, Sherrill came within two points of winning the third. Because some South Jerseyans are willing to split their ticket for Democrats in legislative races, the cushion was enough for Bailey and Simmons to win re-election. Unlike most other victorious Democrats on this list, Bailey and Simmons outpaced Sherrill to victory. Combined, they beat their GOP opponents by almost three percentage points, even while Ciattarelli won the district.
Bailey and Simmons flipped a couple of consistently red towns: Greenwich in Cumberland County and Mantua.
LD-8
South Jersey’s 8th legislative district entered the legislative cycle as one of two with split Assembly delegations, with Democratic Assemblywoman Andrea Katz (D-Chesterfield) and Republican Assemblyman Michael Torrissi (R-Hammonton).
It was a four-way rematch of 2023, meaning Katz was joined by Democrat Anthony Angelozzi, the Hammonton Education Association president, and Torrissi was joined by former Assemblyman Brandon Umba.
Since each party had an incumbent, both parties had an incentive to spend. The race was the state’s most expensive. The candidates and PACs spent at least $4.6 million on the race.
Ultimately, the Democratic wave helped sweep Katz and Angelozzi to victory, thus flipping one GOP-held seat. They ran mostly in line with Sherrill, who won by about five percentage points. Ciattarelli won the 8th by almost nine points in 2021.
State Sen. Latham Tiver (R-Southampton) won his Senate seat by about two points in 2023; he will be among the top targets of Democrats come 2027.
LD-21
Democrats flipped two Assembly seats in one district: the 21st, which reaches into parts of Middlesex, Morris, Somerset, and Union counties.
Andrew Macurdy, a former state and federal prosecutor, and Garwood Councilman Vincent Kearney unseated Assemblywomen Nancy Muñoz (R-Summit) and Michele Matsikoudis (R-New Providence). Muñoz and Matsikoudis were among the state’s most moderate GOP legislators, but the political gravity in LD-21 was undeniable, especially once Macurdy got off the ground with his well-funded campaign.
Ciattarelli won the district by less than half a point in 2021, and Sherrill swooped in and won the 21st by nearly 11 this year. Macurdy and Kearney collectively beat the Republican incumbents by about eight percentage points.
Town-by-town data in Union County isn’t yet available for the Assembly race, but Sherrill’s 17-point victory in the county outpaced Macurdy and Kearney, who won Union by about 14. Union County accounts for about half of the district’s votes.
LD-25
In the other truly surprising legislative result of the night, Democrat Marisa Sweeney unseated two-term incumbent Christian Barranco (R-Jefferson) in the 25th, which includes much of Morris County and one town of Passaic County, West Milford.
Sweeney ran on Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop’s slate of Assembly candidates along with her running mate, Morristown Councilman Steven Pylypchuk. Neither faced a primary challenge, and they moved on to face Barranco and Assemblywoman Aura Dunn (R-Mendham), who won re-election.
Sweeney, a Morristown planning board member, secured first place, outperforming Pylypchuk consistently across the district and beating him by more than 2,000 votes.
Ciattarelli won the 25th by more than 8 points in 2021, but Sherrill took the district by more than 5 points this year. The Democratic Assembly candidates outperformed the GOP candidates narrowly, by about 400 votes, or 0.2 percentage points.
