New Jersey election 2026: Meet the 14 candidates running in the 12th Congressional District primary

• Ewing
• Hopewell Borough
• Hopewell Township
• Pennington
• Princeton
• Trenton
• West Windsor

• Cranbury
• Dunellen
• East Brunswick
• Helmetta
• Jamesburg
• Middlesex
• Milltown
• Monroe
• North Brunswick
• Plainsboro
• South Brunswick
• South River
• Spotswood
• Old Bridge (part)

• Bound Brook
• Bridgewater (part)
• Franklin
• Hillsborough (part)
• Manville
• Millstone
• Montgomery
• North Plainfield
• Rocky Hill
• South Bound Brook

• Plainfield

Matt Adams is a federal government contracts attorney in the defense technology sector. He was a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve, and served as a Middlesex County Democratic committee person, a former Middlesex Borough councilman and the fire commissioner.

His campaign centers on restoring trust in government with robust conflict-of-interest rules across all branches, slashing the budget of the U.S. Immigration and Customs and Enforcement agency, cutting what he calls the bloated defense budget and allocating more money towards social services.

He also vows to support initiatives aimed at making life more affordable for working families in New Jersey. On his campaign website he said, “too many Americans are being priced out of basic human needs such as housing and healthcare. Going to the grocery store should not be a source of stress.”

Before launching her campaign for Congress in the 12th District Sue Altman was the state director for U.S. Sen. Andy Kim. In 2024, Altman ran as the Democratic candidate for Congress in the 7th District and was defeated by U.S. Rep. Tom Kean Jr. Prior to that she served as the executive director of the New Jersey Working Families Alliance.

Altman is centering her campaign on affordability, abolishing the ICE, improving the Department of Homeland Security and increasing youth participation in politics.

She has also vowed to stand up to President Donald Trump, who she said is breaking the law and wrecking the economy.

On her website she said “Corporations and the ultra-wealthy are buying access to the most corrupt administration in American history, while working people are paying the price. There’s no superheroes coming to save us. The same political playbook won’t fix this mess – only we will.”

Brad Cohen has served as the mayor of East Brunswick since 2017. He established a local redevelopment agency to revitalize the township’s commercial corridor, and prior to becoming mayor, Cohen served on the East Brunswick Board of Education for six years. He is also a practicing physician and surgeon with St. Peter’s Physician Associates.

Cohen’s key issues are bringing integrity back to Washington, D.C., defending democracy, solving the affordability crisis and protecting health care.

He says on his website he is running “to stop Donald Trump and his allies from gutting health care, rolling back protections for people with pre-existing conditions, and putting insurance company profits ahead of patients.”

Elijah Dixon works at the Princeton University Keller Center for Innovation in Engineering Education. Dixon, who is a self-described democratic socialist, was an ambassador for former President Barack Obama’s My Brother’s Keeper program in Trenton. My Brother’s Keeper, which is run by the Obama Foundation, promotes intervention by civic leaders in the lives of young Black males.

Dixon’s campaign platform includes establishing universal health care, affordable housing, cutting energy costs, environmental justice and sustainability, and ensuring U.S. foreign policy is based on international law, human rights and respect for human life.

“A sustainable future is one where economic security, public health, and environmental responsibility move forward together,” he wrote on his website.

Adam Hamawy is a surgeon, a small business owner and a veteran. He served as a

combat trauma surgeon and became a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army, working with medical teams in combat and disaster zones including Iraq and Haiti.

His campaign priorities focus on Medicare for everyone, empowering Medicare to negotiate prescription drug pricing, reviving the education system, abolishing and prosecuting ICE, dismantling DHS, fighting for economic justice, standing up for human rights, protecting the environment and protecting and strengthening the rights of veterans.

On his website, Hamawy says he is running to make a difference.

“This is not about Republicans or Democrats. Both parties have failed to address the problems facing our families – affordability, health care, education, and so much more,” he said.

Kyle Little owns a chain of fitness studios in Middlesex County and is also an adjunct college professor teaching exercise classes at Kean University and Middlesex County College. Little earned a master’s degree in exercise science from Montclair State University.

Little’s campaign is focused on protecting marginalized communities and fighting against many actions taken by the Trump administration, including limitations to abortion, mass deportations and the targeting of programs that focus on diversity, equity and inclusion, also known as DEI.

Little does not list specific issues on his website, but he said he supports term limits in Congress and stands for fresh ideas, honest leadership and public service.

His website states “leadership should come from lived experience — not political ambition.”

“He’s not running to play politics — he’s running to make a difference,” it continues.

Adrian Mapp is a four-term mayor of Plainfield. He said under his watch the city did not have a tax increase for four years, crime was reduced, affordable housing was expanded and every municipal park was renovated.

His key issues include expanding economic growth, affordable housing and community development, equally funding public education, protecting health care options, the environment, and public safety and supporting law enforcement.

When he launched his campaign in November 2025, he said growing up in poverty in Barbados gave him toughness, and empathy for those who are suffering.

“People who believed in me fought against the [Plainfield political] machine of the day,” he said. “I was guided by standards of providing good representation, principled representation, and of not being a coward, not being someone who was willing to cave every time [there was] pushback against me.”

Assemblywoman Verlina Reynolds-Jackson represents parts of Hunterdon and Mercer counties in the General Assembly. She began her career as a social worker, then served as a Trenton councilwoman from 2010 to 2018. Reynolds-Jackson was elected to the General Assembly in 2018.

The key issues of her campaign include fighting to uphold democracy, protecting New Jersey families against what she calls Trump’s harmful fiscal policies, fighting for policies that expand access to paid family leave, supporting medical debt relief and health care for all, due process, and protection for immigrants and criminal justice reform.

Reynolds-Jackson said if she is elected, she hopes to increase community engagement.

“We have a large population of young people that want to get into public advocacy and public policy. They just don’t know where to start. And so I think I have that opportunity to create that partnership,” she said.

Shanel Robinson is the director of the Somerset County Board of Commissioners. Before her election to what was then called the Board of Freeholders in 2018, Robinson served on the Franklin Township Council. She is a veteran of the U.S. Air Force.

On her website, Robinson lists her top priorities, including universal health care and mental health services for all. She supports raising the minimum wage, strong union protections, investing in green jobs, closing tax loopholes for corporations among other issues.

Robinson said as a grandmother, she is driven to create a better future for the next generation.

Squire Servance is a patent and life sciences attorney and serves as a board trustee and member of the executive committee for Rutgers University. He served on the Board of The Wistar Institute, a biomedical research center and National Cancer Institute — a designated organization focused on cancer, vaccines, immunology and infectious diseases.

His central campaign issues include creating an economy that works for everyone, building opportunity through education, training and entrepreneurship, lowering health care costs and expanding care, expanding affordable housing, and protecting the environment.

“I believe in a New Jersey where every family can afford to stay and thrive. Where health care is accessible, seniors are protected, small businesses can grow, good jobs are created, and our children have real opportunities ahead of them,” he wrote on his website.

Sujit Singh is a technology consultant who first ran for elected office last year and lost his bid to unseat the mayor of West Windsor by 318 votes.

His campaign platform calls for abolishing the ICE and overhauling the immigration enforcement system, making life more affordable for working families, expanding job creation and economic growth, strengthening the Affordable Care Act, expanding Medicare, expanding clean energy, and revisiting America’s foreign policy.

Singh said he is running for Congress because New Jersey families deserve leadership rooted in service, accountability and compassion.

“Our district is one of the most diverse in the nation, and our communities deserve a representative who listens, includes, and delivers measurable results,” he said in his campaign announcement.

Jay Vaingankar is a former policy advisor in the U.S. Energy Department. The son of immigrants from India, Vaingankar previously worked in the White House Office of Management and Administration after graduating from the University of Pennsylvania and working on former President Joe Biden’s campaign. 

Vaingankar’s campaign is focused on clean and affordable energy as well as protecting the environment. He supports abolishing ICE, expanding affordable housing, implementing “Medicare for All” and strict gun control. 

He said his campaign aims to excite voters.

“We are focused on tackling the affordability crisis in this state, and the way that we’re going to do that is by bringing some new energy into our politics,” he told the New Jersey Globe.

Sam Wang is a professor of neuroscience at Princeton University. He founded the Gerrymandering Project, which uses statistical analysis for equitable redistricting reform across the nation, and is the founding director of the Electoral Innovation Lab, which uses mathematical methods to propose electoral reforms.

His campaign is focused on developing artificial intelligence regulation that drives innovation while protecting workers and families, defending higher education, protecting democracy and protecting medical research and public health.

He said he is running for Congress to rebuild our broken democracy, restore the rule of law and save science.

“In Congress, I will fight cuts to the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and climate, physical, and social science research. I will stop the illegal bureaucratic tricks, straight from the Project 2025 playbook, that are wrecking American research from the inside,” he wrote on his campaign website.

Gregg Mele is an attorney practicing corporate law, contracts, securities, real estate and estate planning. He previously worked on Wall Street, and has taught graduate-level courses in law and economics.

His key campaign issues include ensuring personal and medical freedom over mandates, lowering taxes, supporting small businesses, expanded school choice, including homeschooling, working to make legal gun ownership easier, addressing the nation’s border crisis, fighting drug abuse and working to lower infrastructure costs.

He said his campaign aims to encourage self-sufficiency.

“I want people to stop depending on the government for survival and be able to survive on their own. It is essential to any free society,” he said on his website.

Mele has run unsuccessfully for public office seven times, in different districts, as an independent, libertarian and now as a Republican.

According to the New Jersey Division of Elections, there are 227,843 registered Democrats, 97,531 registered Republicans and 208,510 unaffiliated voters in the 12th District. In the 2024 general election, Democrat Bonnie Watson Coleman received 61.2% of the vote, defeating Republican Darius Mayfiend, who received 36.4% of the vote.