Assembly GOP Sticks With Leadership After Big Election Losses

By Nikita Biryukov, New Jersey Monitor

November 10, 2025

New Jersey Republican lawmakers reelected their Senate and Assembly leaders Thursday, two days after voters ousted several GOP Assembly members and left the party with its smallest caucus in decades.

The party retained Sen. Tony Bucco (R-Morris) and Assemblyman John DiMaio (R-Warren) for another term as minority leaders. DiMaio, in a statement, said the party will “fight for the future of New Jersey.”

“Now more than ever, New Jersey families, seniors and businesses struggling under decades of Democrat control need us to be their voice in Trenton,” he said.

Election night was a drubbing for Republicans, who lost at least three seats in the Assembly, handing Democrats a two-thirds supermajority in the 80-seat body. Races in two other Republican districts are too close to call. GOP leaders expect five total losses.

Republicans credit the coattails of Gov.-elect Mikie Sherill (D), who won a decisive victory in Tuesday’s gubernatorial race against Republican Jack Ciattarelli, with the GOP’s dismal performance in Assembly races.

DiMaio’s reelection as minority leader spurred discontent with at least one member of his caucus. Assemblyman Jay Webber (R-Morris) said the chamber’s GOP leadership does not deserve another term after losses in two consecutive cycles.

Assemblyman Jay Webber (R-Morris) talks with colleagues in the Assembly chambers on June 29, 2022. (Dana DiFilippo | New Jersey Monitor)

Webber said he wanted there to be a discussion on Thursday before Republicans in the Assembly decided on leadership, but he was overruled.

“I am not pointing fingers at John. I’m not blaming him for the loss,” Webber told the New Jersey Monitor. “But when you’re the leader of a caucus, you’re the captain of the ship and it hits an iceberg, you can’t ask to steer the ship again. You should give someone else a chance.”

Republicans lost six Assembly seats in 2023, when Democrats flipped four seats across the 3rd and 11th legislative districts and claimed a single seat each in the 8th and 30th districts. Democrats flipped the other 8th District Assembly seat on Tuesday, among their other gains.

At best, Republicans will emerge from this year’s elections with 25 of the Assembly’s 80 seats. If Democrats claim seats in outstanding districts, Republicans could begin the new legislative session in January with even fewer.

Races in the 2nd and 25th Districts are too close to call and are unlikely to see a winner declared before provisional ballots are tallied Wednesday. Republicans went into Election Day controlling both Assembly seats in those districts.

“We haven’t been this low in membership since after Watergate,” Webber said.

Assemblyman Brian Bergen (R-Morris), who will remain the minority whip, defended DiMaio’s leadership.

“John DiMaio had nearly unanimous support in the room. The only dissent came from someone who wasn’t in the fight, helping at all this election cycle. That says everything,” Bergen said.

All the leadership positions in the Senate, where members were not up for reelection this year, remain the same. In the lower chamber, Assemblyman Brian Rumpf (R-Ocean) will take Assemblywoman Nancy Munoz’s role as the chamber’s GOP budget officer, and Assemblywoman Vicky Flynn (R-Monmouth) will take Rumpf’s role as parliamentarian. Munoz (R-Union) was among the Republicans who lost their seats Tuesday.

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