Bhalla And Brennan Declare Victory In 32nd District Assembly Primary

This story was updated at 10:30 p.m. Tuesday.

HUDSON COUNTY, NJ — Two Democratic candidates declared around 10:30 p.m. Tuesday that they had won their party's 32nd District election primary. However, the results remain unofficial until all votes are counted (including vote-by-mail) and until the county clerk certifies them.

The winners will face two Republicans in November for the seats in the state legislature representing Hoboken and part of Jersey City.

"Housing expert Katie Brennan and Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla won the Democratic primary for New Jersey’s 32nd Legislative District," said a release sent out by their campaign, "delivering a decisive blow to Hudson County’s notorious political machine in the first state-level primary since the elimination of the corrupt 'county line' ballot."

The campaign noted that they overcame more than $1 million in spending by the Hudson County Democratic Organization and a PAC called the Hudson Votes Project (which sent copious attack mailers out against Bhalla).

While the campaign of candidates Jennie Pu and Crystal Fonseca blasted Bhalla throughout the race, Bhalla instead blasted President Trump.

"We did it. We really did it. We just showed the whole state that the people can beat the party bosses,” said Katie Brennan of Jersey City. “This is what democracy looks like when it's not rigged by political machines. The status quo isn’t working for too many people here in Hudson County, and now we’re gonna fix it."

"Did you hear that? We just sent a big message to Trenton: The era of party bosses picking our representatives is over," said Ravi Bhalla, who's in his last term as Hoboken's mayor.

Write-in votes that were mailed up until 8 p.m. tonight may also come in throughout the next week.

The two Republican candidates for 32nd District Assembly did not face a challenge in the primary on Tuesday. See their vote totals below.

The Results

Below are the preliminary vote counts reported by the county at 10:30 p.m. Check here during the week for updates.

Democrats

With 66 percent of districts reporting:

Ravi Bhalla: 5,409

Katie Brennan: 5,575

Crystal Fonseca: 4,031

Jennie Pu: 4,290

Jessica Ramirez (incumbent): 5,242

Yousef Saleh: 4,108

Write-Ins: 67

Republicans

Stephen Bishop: 1,444

Kaushal Patel: 1,028

Write-Ins: 52

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