2015 New Jersey General Assembly election


All 80 seats in the General Assembly were up for election this year. In each Legislative district, there are two people elected; the top two winners in the general election are the ones sent to the Assembly. Typically, the two members of each party run as a team in each election. After the previous election, Democrats captured 48 seats while the Republicans won 32 seats. At the time of the general election, there were two vacancies: One in the 5th District resulting from Democrat Angel Fuentes's resignation on June 30, 2015, and one in the 24th District resulting from Republican Alison Littell McHose's resignation on October 17, 2015.
Ultimately, four Democrats defeated four incumbent Republicans leading to the Democrats controlling 52 of 80 seats in the 2016–17 Assembly session, the highest percentage they held since 1979. Democrats flipped both seats in the 11th district, and one each in the 16th and the 1st.
The 22% turnout was the lowest recorded in recent state history.

Incumbents not seeking re-election

Democratic

Republican

Overall results

Summary of the November 3, 2015 New Jersey General Assembly election results:

Summary of results by district

Close races

Districts where the difference of total votes between the top-two parties was under 10%:
  1. '
  2. ' gain D
  3. '
  4. ' '''gain'''

List of races

Voters in each legislative district elect two members to the New Jersey General Assembly.

District 1

! style="background-color: #3333FF" |

District 2

! style="background-color: white" |

District 5

Incumbent Angel Fuentes originally ran in the Democratic primary but withdrew his candidacy in June 2015 when he became a deputy county clerk in Camden County. Fuentes and Marianne Holly Cass were replaced on the Democratic ballot by Arthur Barclay and Pat Jones and Ralph Williams was replaced by Keith Walker on the Republican ticket.

District 6

Robert Esposito originally won a spot on the Republican ticket in the general election but was replaced on the ballot by Claire Gustafson.

District 11

! style="background-color: #3333FF" |

District 12

Anthony Washington originally won a spot on the Democratic ticket in the general election but was replaced on the ballot by Robert P. Kurzydlowski.

District 16

On election night, the returns initially showed incumbent Republican Donna Simon ahead of Democrat Andrew Zwicker. That night, Zwicker delivered a concession speech though later returns that night put him ahead of Simon. After all provisional ballots were counted in the four counties comprising the district, Simon conceded on November 16. Zwicker is the first Democrat to ever represent the 16th legislative district.
! style="background-color: #3333FF" |

District 19

Reyes Ortega originally won a spot on the Republican ticket in the general election but was replaced on the ballot by Jesus Varela.

District 27

District 30

Jimmy Esposito originally won a spot on the Democratic ticket in the general election but was replaced on the ballot by Lorna Phillipson.

District 34

Louis Rodriguez originally won a spot on the Republican ticket in the general election but withdrew his candidacy from the general election due to a federal job.

District 38

Anthony Cappola initially dropped out of the race on October 1 following the discovery of a controversial satirical book entitled Outrageous! written by Cappola. Bergen County Republicans picked attorney Fernando Alonso to replace Cappola on the ballot pending the allowance of the replacement candidate on the ballot. The Republicans unexpectedly dropped the effort to have the candidate replaced on October 13 and Cappola later announced his intention to continue in the race.