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Baraka says he’ll run for Governor in 2025 [1]

['David Wildstein']

Date: 2024-02-20 00:50:06+00:00

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka announced tonight that he will run for governor in 2025, becoming the third Democrat to join the race to succeed term-limited Gov. Phil Murphy.

Baraka launched his campaign in Trenton at a Black History Month event honoring Divine 9 organizations at the War Memorial’s Patriots Theater.

The 53-year-old Baraka is serving his third term as mayor of the state’s largest city. If elected, he will become the state’s first Black governor.

A former high school principal, he served two stints on the Newark City Council before winning a hotly-contested race for mayor in 2014. He coasted to landslide re-election victories in 2018 and 2022. His late father, Amiri Baraka, was a prominent poet and civil rights leader in Newark.

He joins Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop and former Senate President Steve Sweeney in the 2025 primary field.

Baraka could take Essex County votes away from another potential candidate, Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-Montclair); she is likely to have the backing of Essex County Democratic Chairman and New Jersey Democratic State Chairman LeRoy Jones, Jr., and Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo. Fulop also has support in Essex County; he has been endorsed by South Orange Village President Sheena Collum.

One of his predecessors, Kenneth Gibson, twice sought the Democratic gubernatorial nomination; powered by high turnout among Black voters, he finished third in a thirteen-candidate field in 1981 with 15% of the vote – he finished 3,448 votes out of second place in a primary won by Rep. Jim Florio (26%) – and came in third with 26% in a field of six candidates in 1985, 1,534 votes behind second-place finisher John F. Russo, the majority leader of the New Jersey Senate.

Gibson carried Essex County by a 46%-35% margin in 1985 against the winner of the primary, Essex County Executive Peter Shapiro. He carried Essex by a 40%-13% margin against Florio in 1981.

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[1] Url: https://newjerseyglobe.com/governor/baraka-says-hell-run-for-governor-in-2025/

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