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 34th legislative district is one of 40 districts that make up the map for 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 ...

. It encompasses the Essex County municipalities of Belleville, Bloomfield,

East Orange East Orange is a City (New Jersey), city in Essex County, New Jersey, Essex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the city's population was 69,612, an increase of 5,342 (+8.3%) from the 2010 United States ...

, Glen Ridge Township, Nutley, and

Orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower ** Orange juice *Orange (colour), the color of an orange fruit, occurs between red and yellow in the vi ...

Demographic information

As of the 2020 United States census, the district had a population of 235,276, of whom 182,601 (77.6%) were of voting age. The racial makeup of the district was 71,652 (30.5%)

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 ...

, 91,979 (39.1%)

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 ...

, 1,662 (0.7%) Native American, 11,466 (4.9%) Asian, 85 (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 ...

, 33,481 (14.2%) from some other race, and 24,951 (10.6%) 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 59,478 (25.3%) of the population. The district had 161,643 registered voters , of whom 83,411 (51.6%) were registered as Democrats, 59,397 (36.7%) were registered as unaffiliated, 17,219 (10.7%) 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 1,616 (1.0%) were registered to other parties.

Political representation

The legislative district overlaps with 10th and 11th congressional districts.

Apportionment history

When the 40-district legislative map was created in 1973, the 34th district was originally located in southern Passaic County containing the municipalities of

Passaic Passaic ( or ) is a city in Passaic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the city was the state's 16th-most-populous municipality,Little Falls, West Paterson, Totowa, and

Haledon Haledon ( ) is a borough in Passaic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population was 9,052, an increase of 734 (+8.8%) from the 2010 census count of 8,318, which in turn reflected an i ...

. After the 1981 redistricting, the 34th lost Passaic and Haledon picked up the large township of Wayne and Essex County municipalities of North Caldwell,

West Caldwell West Caldwell is a township located in the West Essex area in northwestern Essex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is located approximately west of Manhattan and northwest of Newark. As of the 2020 United States census, the townsh ...

, and Fairfield. Following the 1991 redistricting, West Paterson was removed and the western Essex County municipalities were swapped with Glen Ridge and Bloomfield. In 2001, as a result of that year's

redistricting Redistricting in the United States is the process of drawing electoral district boundaries. For the United States House of Representatives, and state legislatures, redistricting occurs after each ten-year census. The U.S. Constitution in Art ...

, Bloomfield and almost all of Passaic County was removed from the district, leaving Clifton and West Paterson (renamed Woodland Park in 2007), and picking up East Orange and Montclair, municipalities formerly in the 27th district. The 34th had previously been Republican-leaning but after the 2001 redistricting, with the addition of large minority populations in East Orange and Montclair, the 34th became Democratic-leaning. 27th district Democratic assemblywoman

Nia Gill Nia H. Gill (born March 15, 1948) is an American attorney and Democratic Party politician, who represented the 34th Legislative District in the New Jersey Senate from 2002 to 2024. She ran unsuccessfully as a candidate in the June 2012 primary ...

defeated incumbent Republican senator Norman M. Robertson in 2001, while Democratic newcomers

Peter C. Eagler Peter C. Eagler (November 23, 1954 – May 11, 2024) was an American Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party politician from New Jersey, who represented the New Jersey's 34th legislative district, 34th legislative district in the New J ...

and

Willis Edwards Willis Edwards (28 April 1903 – 27 September 1988) was an English professional football player and manager. Early Edwards was born in the mining village of Newton, North East Derbyshire, not far from Chesterfield and Alfreton. Like many boys ...

defeated incumbent Republican Gerald H. Zecker and his running mate Natalie R. Esposito to win the two Assembky seats. Then a resident of Montclair and capitalizing on his connections with

Rudy Giuliani Rudolph William Louis Giuliani ( , ; born May 28, 1944) is an American politician and Disbarment, disbarred lawyer who served as the 107th mayor of New York City from 1994 to 2001. He previously served as the United States Associate Attorney ...

Ken Kurson Kenneth Kurson (born 1968) is an American political consultant, writer, journalist, and former musician, who was editor-in-chief of ''The New York Observer'' between 2013 and 2017. In 2020 he was charged by federal prosecutors with cyberstalking ...

ran in 2003 for election to the General Assembly in the 34th district as a moderate Republican, hoping to capitalize on divisions within the Democratic Party following a bitter primary battle. In a district that was reapportioned to be "so overwhelmingly Democratic that general elections would be nothing more than a formality", Kurson received 17.6% of the vote and ran a distant third behind Democratic incumbent

(with 33.2%) and his running mate

Sheila Oliver Sheila Yvette Oliver (July 14, 1952 – August 1, 2023) was an American politician who served as the second lieutenant governor of New Jersey from 2018 until her death in 2023. A member of the Democratic Party, Oliver was the first Black woman ...

(31.0%). In 2017, Oliver was selected by

Phil Murphy Philip Dunton Murphy (born August 16, 1957) is an American politician, diplomat, and financier serving as the 56th governor of New Jersey since 2018. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he was elected governor i ...

to be his running mate for

Lieutenant Governor of New Jersey The lieutenant governor of New Jersey is an elected constitutional officer in the executive branch of the state government of New Jersey in the United States. The lieutenant governor is the second highest-ranking official in the state government ...

. While state law prohibits running for two offices on the same ballot, Democrats claimed a loophole by the fact that Lieutenant Governor is not a position where candidates are nominated by petition. Oliver won both re-election to the Assembly and election on Murphy's ticket in November, and resigned her Assembly seat on January 9, 2018 to accept the statewide position. Democratic committee members in Essex and Passaic Counties selected Essex County Freeholder Britnee Timberlake as her replacement in the Assembly; she was sworn in on January 29. The 2021 legislative reapportionment removed Clifton for the first time under the current set of legislative maps, while essentially combining parts of the 28th district (Bloomfield; Glen Ridge; Nutley) with the old 34th district (East Orange/Orange), along with Belleville (

29th 29 (twenty-nine) is the natural number following 28 and preceding 30. It is a prime number. 29 is the number of days February has on a leap year. Mathematics 29 is the tenth prime number. Integer properties 29 is the fifth primorial prime, ...

, 2001/2011; 28th district prior).

Election history

Election results

Senate

General Assembly

References

{{NewJerseyLegislatureDistricts Essex County, New Jersey Passaic County, New Jersey 34