One some levels, last year’s election brought about a sea change in the New Jersey Legislature.
All 120 seats in the Democratic-controlled governing body that writes the state’s laws and passes its budget were up for grabs, and all districts were redrawn for the first time in a decade. Ultimately, more than two dozen lawmakers retired, several others left office, and a few more lost. In all, 31 new members — or a quarter of both houses — were sworn in this past January as Democrats tightened their control of the Statehouse. And a handful of those freshly minted legislators made history in the process.
But for all that turnover, little changed about the Legislature’s gender and racial makeup, meaning it still falls short in matching New Jersey’s diverse population, according to an analysis by NJ Advance Media.
Though there is more diversity than a few decades ago, the number of lawmakers of color increased by only one in the 221st Legislature. And even more strikingly, after female membership reached a record high in the 220th edition, the number of women legislators fell by two this time.
Some lawmakers of color who left Trenton were replaced by white members and some female legislators were replaced by men.
Thus, while New Jersey is widely considered one of the most diverse states in America, the average state lawmaker remains white, male, straight, and over 50.
“There was an opportunity here, but that is not how it turned out,” said Henal Patel, director of the Democracy and Justice Program at the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice.
“It’s an issue we don’t have a Legislature that reflects the state of New Jersey. But it’s not surprising.”
Of the 40 members of the Senate and 80 members of the Assembly:
- 41, or 34% are women, two fewer than the last edition.
- 82, or 68%, are white, one fewer than before.
- 19, or 16% are Black, one fewer than before.
- 13, or 11%, are Latino, four more than before.
- 6, or 5%, are Asian, one fewer than before.
Of those numbers, only the percentage of Black lawmakers matches the breakdown of the state’s population. New Jersey’s 9.3 million residents are 50.7% women, 52.9% white, 15.4% Black, 21.9% Latino, and 10.5% Asian, according to the most recent U.S. Census figures.
The disparity in Asian and Latino lawmakers comes even though those are the fastest-growing segments of the state’s population. The number of Asian residents in New Jersey grew by 31% from 2010-20 and Latinos by 29% in that period.
Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University, said diversity is important in the Statehouse because democratic government should reflect its citizens.
“People who come from different professions, different economic status, different racial ethnic groups, sexuality — they all bring their life experience and perspective to the table,” Walsh said. “It enriches the legislative process, it makes public policy more reflective to citizens, and frankly, you waste a tremendous amount of talent if you’re drawing only from white male attorneys.”
State Sen. Angela McKnight, D-Hudson, agreed.
“In order to support the different cultures, we need to have that represented at the table,” said McKnight, who is Black. “If we don’t have someone who looks like them at the table, how are we fully engaged?”
State Sen. Angela McKnight, D-Hudson, is pictured last year.
New districts but disappointment
New Jersey is broken into 40 districts represented in the Legislature, and state leaders gather once every 10 years to redraw the lines. This time was unusual: Democrats and Republicans agreed to a rare compromise map. Typically, a tie-breaker is needed to pick one party’s map over the other.
Still, the final product over-represented white residents and diminished communities of color, according to Fair Districts New Jersey, a nonpartisan coalition of advocates that aimed to reform the state’s redistricting process.
“Plainly, a map that fails to precisely mirror the population growth of our state fails to truly serve communities of color,” Fair Districts said at the time.
Patel of the Institute for Social Justice said the map “got better but didn’t quite hit the mark.”
At the same time, there was also a drop in female representation.
The Legislature’s last edition had 43 women, the most in state history. That included the first three Asian American women ever to serve in the Legislature, two of which were also the first Muslim members of any gender.
One, former Assemblywoman Sadaf Jaffer, was among the women who declined to run last year for another term, citing verbal attacks from opponents and social media users, as well as the pressure of working in a male-dominated Statehouse.
Meanwhile, former Sen. Nia Gill, both the Legislature’s longest-serving female and longest-serving Black lawmaker at the time, was ousted last year after redistricting placed her and another veteran lawmaker, Sen. Richard Codey, in the same North Jersey district. Gill lost to Codey, who had the critical endorsement of local party leaders, in the Democratic primary for the seat, ending her 30-year tenure in Trenton. Codey then retired before the general election, saying he changed his mind, and his longtime running mate, John McKeon, ultimately succeeded him. Both Codey and McKeon are white.
With two fewer female members this year, New Jersey slipped from 21st to 23rd in the national ranking of the number of women elected to state legislatures across the county, a list overseen by Rutgers’ Center for American Women and Politics. The state has ranked as low as 43rd (in 1989, 1991, 2001, and 2004) and as high as 9th (in 2014).
The 34% of the Legislature that’s female is actually a little better than the national average of 32.7%. Only one state, Nevada, has a legislature that’s more than 50% women.
Of the current women lawmakers in New Jersey, 33 are Democrats and eight are Republican — four more and six fewer, respectively, than the Legislature’s last edition.
More than half — 22 — are women of color, including 11 Black, 9 Latina, and two Asian legislators. All are Democrats.
Many of the gains women made in 2021 were because Republicans added five women to their ranks as the party gained seven seats in the Legislature overall. But several of those lost re-election as Democrats flipped six seats in total last year.
Assemblywoman Nancy Muñoz, R-Union, said Republican women had made “tremendous strides” but faced bitter campaigns in which they were outspent.
“We had good candidates,” Muñoz said. “I thought they reflected their districts well. ... It was forces beyond our control.”
Walsh said the Legislature’s new numbers are “not reflective at any level, but at least there’s diversity among the women.”
“It’s not a given the trajectory is always on the forward motion,” she said. “It takes vigilance, it takes intentional work to make sure women are being recruited and trained to run for office and recruited in winnable races.”
Experts say there are a few reasons for a lack in female representation, including that women tend to be caregivers and have faced struggles in raising money.
But the biggest challenge, they say, is the state’s notorious county-line system, in which county parties endorse chosen candidates and group them together on the primary ballot. That, critics say, gives outsized power to party bosses, benefits incumbents, minimizes competitive primaries, and discourages newcomers — especially women and people of color — from running.
“There are very powerful gatekeepers who make these decisions,” Walsh said. “Women are still on the outside looking in. When there is an opportunity, women are not always necessarily turned to.”
Most of the county leaders who make these decisions are white men, notes Julia Sass Rubin, a Rutgers University professor who has studied the effect of the county line.
Rubin said the Legislature’s latest numbers are not a shock even with the big turnover last year because, with the line firmly in place, the number of contested races “barely budged.” She said county chairs tend to pick candidates who are reflective of themselves.
“It perpetuates a legislature that doesn’t reflect the gender or racial makeup of the state,” she said. “You get sort of self-replication.”
Walsh noted 12 female incumbents didn’t run for re-election or lost last year.
“It’s not a life sentence. You get to leave,” she said. “But there needs to be a concerted effort and commitment from parties that when these openings come, to run women in them. It’s not good enough to run Democratic women in Sussex County or Republican women in Hudson County. There has to be the commitment to run women in winnable places.”
The hope, advocates say, is there is currently a reckoning on the county line. A federal judge has blocked the setup in this year’s Democratic primary as part of a lawsuit Democratic U.S. Rep. Andy Kim filed as he runs for U.S. Senate this year, and it’s possible he could throw out the system entirely in the future.
That would reshape how New Jersey politics have been run for a century. It could inspire more candidates — especially women and people of color — to run. Assembly seats are up again next year and Senate seats in 2026.
“I’m looking forward to a more equity, representation, and a more level playing field for those who want to serve their communities,” Jaffer, the former lawmaker, said after the judge’s ruling.
Other numbers
New Jersey’s legislative numbers reflect more diversity than in the past. In 2019, 90 members of the Legislature, or 75%, were white. In 1988, 93% was white and male.
The average age of the Legislature also fwell this year, from 60 to 56. After Sen. Sam Thompson, 88, retired last year, Sen. Shirley Turner is now the oldest lawmaker, at 82.
Three new legislators made history:
- At 31, Assemblyman Cody Miller, D-Gloucester, is the first-ever member of the Legislature born in the 1990s.
- Assemblywoman Luanne Peterpaul, D-Monmouth, became the first openly LGBTQ+ woman ever elected to the Legislature. That means there are now two LGBTQ+ members — or 2% of the Legislature, short of the percentage of LGBTQ+ residents in the state (4%).
- Assemblyman Al Barlas, R-Essex, who was born in Pakistan, became first South Asian Republican ever elected to the Legislature.
Another Asian American Republican elected two years ago, former Assemblyman Brandan Umba, R-Burlington, lost his bid for a second term. Only one other Republican lawmaker is a person of color: Assemblyman Antwan McClellan, R-Cape May.
Meanwhile, 103 current members have college experience (up from 101 in the last edition), eight have military experience (down from 12), and 31 are lawyers (the same as last time). Legislators also include educators, doctors, one farmer, and one dentist, among several other professions.
There is also now a rabbi: new Assemblyman Alexander Schnall, a Democrat from Lakewood. He is one of two Orthodox Jewish lawmakers.
Nationally, the 118th edition of Congress is less diverse than the nation, with 75% of its members white compared to 59% of the country’s population, according to the Pew Research Center. Still, the number of women in Congress is at a record high, at 28% of its members, though 51% of the nation is female.
In New Jersey, both U.S. senators are men of color: Cory Booker, the state’s first Black member of the Senate, and Robert Menendez, the state’s first Latino member of the Senate. Of the state’s 12 members of the U.S. House of Representatives, two are women and four are people of color.
One repeated critique in New Jersey is that the three top leaders in state government have been white men for years. Currently, they are Gov. Phil Murphy, state Senate President Nick Scutari, and Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin. All are Democrats.
Murphy also has a Cabinet in which half of the 26 members are women, The lieutenant governor, Tahesha Way, is a Black woman.
Coughlin said he gets “frustrated” when he hears about a state government being dominated by white men.
“I’ve done a job well enough that people of all colors elected me (speaker), now four times,” he said.
Coughlin added it’s a “colossal change” to have several dozen new lawmakers, who will “bring a different perspective” and “fresh energy.”
The Legislature’s top two Republicans are also white men: Senate Minority Leader Anthony Bucco and Assembly Minority Leader John DiMaio.
On the Democratic side, Senate Majority Leader Teresa Ruiz is the highest-ranking Latina in state history. Assembly Majority Leader Lou Greenwald is a white man.
Of the state Supreme Court’s seven justices, three are women and two are people of color. Fabiana Pierre-Louis, appointed in 2020, is the first Black woman to serve on the court.
McKnight, the state senator, said Black women have “come a long way” in the Legislature but lamented how there are only two Black men in the Senate. She also said there needs to be more Latinos and Asians elected.
“We’ve come so far. The needle has moved. I say the needle will move even further,” she said. “We just have to keep working together.”
“I am not disappointed. I see the progress.”
Stories by Brent Johnson
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Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on X at @johnsb01.