New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

's 17th legislative district is one of 40 in the

New Jersey Legislature The New Jersey Legislature is the legislative branch of the government of the U.S. state of New Jersey. In its current form, as defined by the New Jersey Constitution of 1947, the Legislature consists of two houses: the General Assembly and ...

. The district includes the Middlesex County municipalities of

New Brunswick New Brunswick is a Provinces and Territories of Canada, province of Canada, bordering Quebec to the north, Nova Scotia to the east, the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to the northeast, the Bay of Fundy to the southeast, and the U.S. state of Maine to ...

, North Brunswick,

Piscataway Piscataway may refer to: *Maryland (place) **Piscataway, Maryland, an unincorporated community ** Piscataway Creek, Maryland ** Piscataway Park, historical park at the mouth of Piscataway Creek ** Siege of Piscataway, siege of Susquehannock fort sou ...

, along with the Somerset County municipalities of Franklin Township and South Bound Brook.Districts by Number

. Accessed January 30, 2014.

Demographic characteristics

As of the 2020 United States census, the district had a population of 235,376, of whom 188,877 (80.2%) were of voting age. The racial makeup of the district was 71,398 (30.3%)

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 44,522 (18.9%)

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 1,963 (0.8%) Native American, 57,211 (24.3%) Asian, 113 (0.0%)

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...

, 38,911 (16.5%) from some other race, and 21,258 (9.0%) from two or more races.

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

or Latino of any race were 63,076 (26.8%) of the population. The district had 149,525 registered voters as of December 1, 2021, of whom 58,590 (39.2%) were registered as Unaffiliated, 70,819 (47.4%) were registered as Democrats, 18,119 (12.1%) were registered as

Republicans Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

, and 1,997 (1.3%) were registered to other parties. Homeownership was high. The district had a large population of

Asian American Asian Americans are Americans with ancestry from the continent of Asia (including naturalized Americans who are immigrants from specific regions in Asia and descendants of those immigrants). Although this term had historically been used fo ...

s, third highest in the state, while having the third-smallest population of senior citizens among the 40 legislative districts. Registered Democrats outnumbered Republicans by a 3 to 1 margin.

Political representation

The legislative district overlaps with New Jersey's 6th and 12th congressional districts.

Apportionment history

Since the 1973 creation of the 40-district legislative map, the 17th district has always been anchored by the city of New Brunswick and Piscataway Township. The 1973 iteration of the district also included Franklin Township and Manville in Somerset County and Highland Park,

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, former county in South East England, now mainly within Greater London. Its boundaries largely followed three rivers: the River Thames, Thames in the south, the River Lea, Le ...

, Dunellen, and South Plainfield. In the 1981 redistricting, the two Somerset County municipalities were shifted to the 14th district while the 17th picked up the Union County city of Plainfield. Dunellen was removed under the 1991 redistricting, but Somerset's Bound Brook was added. As part of the 2001 apportionment, based on the results of the 2000 United States census, changes were made which removed Bound Brook (moved to the 16th district), Middlesex Borough and Plainfield City (to the 22nd district) and South Plainfield borough (to the 18th district) and added Franklin Township (from the 16th legislative district), Milltown Borough and North Brunswick Township (also from the 18th district). Changes to the district made as part of the New Jersey Legislative apportionment in 2011, based on the results of the 2010 census resulted in the removal of Highland Park (to the 18th district). After 20 years in office, John A. Lynch Sr. did not run for re-election in 1977, due to illness. Assembly Speaker

William J. Hamilton William J. Hamilton Jr. (December 26, 1932 – October 10, 2019) was an American Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party politician from New Jersey, who served in both houses of the New Jersey Legislature, where he represented Midd ...

ran for the vacant Senate seat and Joseph D. Patero and

David C. Schwartz David C. Schwartz (February 27, 1939 – June 10, 2022) was an American politician who served 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 ...

were the Democratic candidates for Assembly in a district that voted for Democrats by a 2-1 margin. After losing the support of the Middlesex County Democratic Organization, Assemblymember Angela L. Perun announced in March 1985 that she had switched parties and would run as a Republican in that year's general election, after having served two terms in office as a Democrat and having been a vocal opponent of the

Reagan Administration Ronald Reagan's tenure as the 40th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1981, and ended on January 20, 1989. Reagan, a Republican from California, took office following his landslide victory over ...

. Piscataway mayor Bob Smith was given Perun's spot and the Assembly ballot, and he won election together with incumbent David C. Schwartz. Despite his confidence that he would win re-election if he chose to run, David C. Schwartz decided not to run for re-election in 1991 after seven terms of office, saying that he was reluctant to serve in the minority party in the new legislative term. Jerry Green took Schwartz's open seat in the general Election. Bob Smith was elected to his first Senate term in November 2001 to fill the seat vacated after Lynch retired. Jerry Green was relocated to the 22nd legislative district in redistricting following the 2000 United States census, and the two open Assembly seats were filled by Upendra J. Chivukula and Joseph V. Egan. Chivukula's election made him the first

South Asia South Asia is the southern Subregion#Asia, subregion of Asia that is defined in both geographical and Ethnicity, ethnic-Culture, cultural terms. South Asia, with a population of 2.04 billion, contains a quarter (25%) of the world's populatio ...

n to be elected to the New Jersey Legislature and the third

Indian American Indian Americans are Americans whose ancestry originates wholly or partly from India. The terms Asian Indian and East Indian are used to avoid confusion with Native Americans in the United States, Native Americans in the United States, who ar ...

to be elected to a state assembly in the United States. Joseph Danielsen was sworn into 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 ...

on October 16, 2014 to fill the vacant seat of Upendra J. Chivukula, who left office to take a seat as a Commissioner on the

New Jersey Board of Public Utilities The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU) is a regulatory authority in New Jersey "with authority to oversee the regulated utilities, which in turn provide critical services such as natural gas, electricity, water, telecommunications and c ...

.Friedman, Matt
"N.J. Assembly swears in new member from Somerset County"

NJ.com NJ.com is a digital news content provider and website in New Jersey owned by Advance Publications. According to ''The New York Times'' in 2012, it was the largest provider of digital news in the state at the time. In 2018, comScore reports that ...

, October 16, 2014. Accessed October 19, 2014. "Joseph Danielsen, the municipal chairman of the Franklin Township Democrats, was sworn in today to fill the state Assembly seat just vacated by Democrat Upendra Chivukula, whom Gov. Chris Christie tapped for a seat on the state Board of Public Utilities." Owing to Middlesex County's strong Democratic leanings, the 17th district has never elected a Republican legislator, only being briefly represented by one when Perun switched parties in 1985.

Election history

Election results

Senate

General Assembly

References

{{NewJerseyLegislatureDistricts Middlesex County, New Jersey Somerset County, New Jersey 17