Antwan McClellan is an American Republican Party politician who has represented the 1st Legislative District in the

New Jersey General Assembly The New Jersey General Assembly is the lower house of the New Jersey Legislature. Since the election of 1967 (1968 Session), the Assembly has consisted of 80 members. Two members are elected from each of New Jersey's 40 legislative districts f ...

since January 14, 2020. McClellan served as an Ocean City

Councilman A councillor is an elected representative for a local government council in some countries. Canada Due to the control that the provinces have over their municipal governments, terms that councillors serve vary from province to province. Unl ...

from 2012 until 2020.

Personal and early life

McClellan is a lifelong resident of Ocean City. He is the youngest of six siblings. He attended

Ocean City High School Ocean City High School (OCHS) is a four-year comprehensive public high school located in Ocean City, in Cape May County, New Jersey, United States, serving students in ninth through twelfth grades as the lone secondary school of the Ocean C ...

as well as

Virginia State University Virginia State University (VSU or Virginia State) is a public historically Black land-grant university in Ettrick, Virginia. Founded on , Virginia State developed as the United States's first fully state-supported four-year institution of hi ...

and

Old Dominion University Old Dominion University (Old Dominion or ODU) is a public research university in Norfolk, Virginia. It was established in 1930 as the Norfolk Division of the College of William & Mary and is now one of the largest universities in Virginia w ...

. McClellan serves as the Confidential Assistant/Personnel Director/Public Information Officer in the Cape May County Sheriff's Department. He was first elected to the Ocean City Council in 2012 and was re-elected in 2016. He has also served as a member of the Ocean City Board of Education, a trustee on the Ocean City Historical Museum and a volunteer for the South Jersey Field of Dreams.

New Jersey Assembly

McClellan started his bid for Assembly in early 2019. He ran as a team alongside

Mike Testa Michael L. Testa Jr. (born May 1, 1976) is an American Republican Party politician who represents the 1st Legislative District in the New Jersey Senate. Testa was elected to the state senate on November 5, 2019 in the special election to f ...

and Erik Simonsen. McClellan alongside Simonsen ousted incumbents Bruce Land and Matt Milam. He was also the first

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

Republican in the legislature since 2002. Republicans attacked the Democratic-supporting General Majority PAC for darkening McClellan's face in a mailer, accusing them of racism and demanding the mailer be withdrawn. McClellan commented on the mailer, "The Democratic Party claims to be the party of inclusion. However, the moment a person of color like me disagrees with their narrative, they launch an ad hominem attack, whip out their best '

Aunt Jemima Pearl Milling Company (formerly known as Aunt Jemima from 1889 to 2021) is an American breakfast brand for Baking mix, pancake mix, syrup, and other breakfast food products. The original version of the pancake mix for the brand was developed i ...

' photograph, and purposefully darken my complexion in order to suppress dissent."

Tenure

McClellan was sworn into the Assembly on January 14, 2020, when the

219th New Jersey Legislature The 219th New Jersey Legislature began on January 14, 2020, following the 2019 elections for Assembly, and one special election for Senate. It ended on January 11, 2022. Background Elections will be held in November 2019 for all 80 seats in th ...

convened.

Committee assignments

*Appropriations *Homeland Security and State Preparedness *Tourism Gaming and the Arts

District 1

New Jersey's 1st Legislative District encompasses parts of

Atlantic County, New Jersey Atlantic County is a county located along the southern coast of the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the county had a population of 274,534.Cumberland County, New Jersey, and all of Cape May County, New Jersey. Each of the 40 districts in the New Jersey Legislature has one representative in the New Jersey Senate and two members in the

. The representatives from the 2nd District for the 2022—2023 Legislative Session are:Legislative Roster for District 1
New Jersey Legislature. Accessed January 11, 2022. *Senator

(R) *Assemblyman Erik Simonsen (R) *Assemblyman Antwan McClellan (R)

Electoral history

General Assembly

References

External links

Legislative Webpage
{{DEFAULTSORT:McClellan, Antwan African-American state legislators in New Jersey People from Ocean City, New Jersey Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Virginia State University alumni Old Dominion University alumni Republican Party members of the New Jersey General Assembly 21st-century American politicians 21st-century African-American politicians