2024 General Election: The biggest winners and losers in Hudson County

Another election cycle is in the record books, so let’s take a look at the biggest winners and losers in Hudson County with a second Donald Trump (R) presidency on the horizon.

By John Heinis/Hudson County View

WINNERS

‘For Stronger Schools’ Jersey City BOE slate

Matt Schneider and Tia Rezabala were big underdogs going up against the “Education Matters” ticket backed by the teachers union, but they came through with big early voting and vote-by-mail tallies that remained consistent on Election Day.

Certainly having the top ballot positions helped, but given that the JCEA-backed team had swept every race between 2020 and 2023, this was still a big victory that was made possible largely due to massive voter turnout downtown.

James Solomon

The Ward E councilman and mayoral hopeful went out on a limb by backing Schneider and Rezabala at the tail end of the election cycle and his gamble paid off.

He also backed now U.S. Senator-elect Andy Kim (D-NJ) who had large pluralities in Jersey City, reminiscent of Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla posting big Jersey City numbers against U.S. Rep. Rob Menendez (D-8) in June. Solomon now has momentum heading into 2025.

Hoboken tenants

The Hoboken rent control referendum introduced by the Mile Square Taxpayers Association was defeated by a nearly 3-to-1 margin. Hoboken renters and advocates (including the local DSA) just pounded the pavement a lot longer and harder than their opponents.

Credit also goes to Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla and the majority of the city council for aggressively pushing the vote no movement early and often.

Rob Menendez

In a day where Democrats across the country faced a lot of tough and unexpected results, Menendez was re-elected by at least 25 points after the tough aforementioned primary.

Was the end result ever in question? No, but Menendez worked it and got an outcome many of his colleagues in the House would have begged for. On that note, U.S. Reps. Nellie Pou (D-9) and LaMonica McIver (D-10) also won (they represent small portions of Hudson).

LOSERS

Jersey City Education Association

The JCEA has still won 13 of the past 15 contested board seats, but this was still a very bad result for them on Tuesday night even with Trustee Natalia Ioffe getting re-elected.

They need to go back to the drawing board and do some serious outreach to parents and teachers in the district before they even consider putting a ticket together for next year.

Craig Guy and Bill O’Dea

While they weren’t the only ones to back the Education Matters team, the county executive/HCDO chair had never endorsed a Jersey City BOE ticket before and this was evidently a bad time to start.

For O’Dea, his mayoral run is tied to the JCEA so his support here was understandable, but the fact that Solomon went against the grain and won has to sting for him a bit.

The Mile Square Taxpayers Association

Again, the Hoboken rent control referendum lost decisively despite the MSTA having a notable money advantage.

Their plan to try to remedy this situation through the courts on a case-by-case basis could be effective, but if so, it will be costly and time consuming.

Democratic GOTV efforts

While President-elect Donald Trump still lost Hudson County by a sizable margin, he narrowed the gap by 18 points from 2020, with Hispanic voters coming out big for the WWE Hall of Famer.

This wasn’t just an issue in Hudson County though, as Trump managed to win seven out of 21 counties in New Jersey and lost to Vice President Kamala Harris by just 4.3 points – the smallest margin since 1988, the last time a Republican, George H.W. Bush, won NJ.