AP Calls NJ's 9th Congressional District For Nellie Pou

NORTH JERSEY — The final Congressional race in New Jersey has been called, with the Associated Press calling the 9th District for Democrat Nellie Pou.

Pou did declare victory on Tuesday night, and several New Jersey political publications also reported that she had won the seat long held by Rep. Bill Pascrell. However, the Associated Press — a trusted source for journalists on Election Night — has not called the race in her favor as of 10 a.m. Wednesday.

Pascrell died in August at the age of 87, after serving in Congress for 28 years. The longtime Paterson resident had filed to run for a 15th term this November.

The Passaic County Democratic Committee selected Pou, a state senator (D-35), as their nominee for U.S. House after he died.

Pou was running against U.S. Air Force veteran Billy Prempeh, who has been the Republican nominee in District 9 since the 2020 election. Both are from Paterson.

And, two third-party candidates were on the ballot: Benjamin Taylor of the Green Party, and Libertarian Bruno Pereira.

The 9th District contains 35 municipalities in three different counties: 24 in Bergen County, 9 in Passaic County, and 2 in Hudson County. The district office is in Paterson.

Bergen County, where Pou had a thin lead against Prempeh on Tuesday night, has yet to update all of its totals as of Wednesday morning. Hudson County also had several districts yet to count, and Pou is ahead there by more than 1,200 votes.

All Passaic County results are in, with Pou winning there by almost 15,000 votes.

Here are the latest unofficial tallies in District 9, according to the Associated Press election tracker:

U.S. House, NJ District 9

99 percent reporting

• Nellie Pou (Democrat): 123,772 (50.6 percent)
• Billy Prempeh (Republican): 112,936 (46.2 percent)
• Benjamin Taylor (Green Party): 4,631 (1.9 percent)
• Bruno Pereira (Libertarian Party): 3,318 (1.4 percent)

A glitch in the AP website did list Taylor as the leader for at least two short periods on Tuesday night, as Patch witnessed.