Nine Democrats Debate in NJ-12 Race to Succeed Watson Coleman

Nine Democrats are set to debate tonight for the right to succeed Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman in New Jersey’s 12th congressional district, a race that will shape who represents a stretch of Central Jersey running through Mercer, Somerset, and Middlesex counties.

Watson Coleman, a Democrat from Ewing who has held the seat for 12 years, is not seeking re-election. That opened a crowded field. Nine candidates cleared the qualifying bar set by debate sponsors the New Jersey Globe and Rider University, which required either raising at least $250,000 through March 31 or collecting endorsements from five party insiders, including county chairs, statewide elected officials, state legislators, countywide officials, and mayors within the district.

The 150-minute debate starts at 7 PM and runs until 9:30 PM. New Jersey Globe editor David Wildstein will moderate. Panelists include Micah Rasmussen, director of the Rebovich Institute at Rider University, and Joey Fox, the Globe’s Washington reporter, with additional questions from Rider University students. The debate streams on the Globe’s site, Facebook Live, X, and YouTube, and will air multiple times on C-SPAN before the June 2 primary.

The nine candidates on stage tonight cover a lot of ground, professionally and politically.

Sue Altman served as state director on U.S. Senator Andy Kim’s staff and was the 2024 Democratic nominee in the adjacent 7th district. Brad Cohen is a physician and the current mayor of East Brunswick. Adam Hamawy is a retired U.S. Army combat trauma surgeon and Lt. Colonel who served in Iraq. Adrian Mapp is the four-term mayor of Plainfield. Verlina Reynolds-Jackson is a five-term assemblywoman who chairs the Assembly Education Committee and previously served as Mercer County Democratic chair. Shanel Robinson is a three-term Somerset County Commissioner and a U.S. Air Force veteran. Squire Servance is a patent lawyer and businessman who sits on the Rutgers University Board of Trustees. Jay Vaingankar worked in the Biden White House and at the U.S. Department of Energy. Sam Wang is a neuroscientist at Princeton University who founded the Princeton Gerrymandering Project.

That’s a lot of résumés for one stage.

The race draws attention partly because the 12th has been reliably Democratic territory, which means the June 2 primary winner is the heavy favorite in November. Watson Coleman’s departure leaves no incumbent advantage for any candidate, and the field reflects it. You’ve got local elected officials, veterans, academics, a White House alum, and a former party operative all making the case that they’re the right fit for a district that includes Trenton, Princeton, New Brunswick, and parts of Somerset County.

The debate format is long-form, 150 minutes with a full panel, which should give the candidates more room than a standard one-minute-answer cage match. Whether that helps voters sort through nine people on one stage is a fair question.

“The long-form debate format will allow a crowded field of Democrats to answer questions on a broad range of national campaign issues,” the New Jersey Globe said in announcing the event.

Thirteen candidates were invited. Four didn’t make the qualifying cut. The nine who did have 150 minutes tonight to make their case to Democratic primary voters who’ll decide this in about five weeks.