What Essex County Voters Will Decide Tuesday: Booker Seeks a Third Senate Term, and McIver Faces Bucco Again in NJ-10

New Jersey has one U.S. Senate seat and all 12 of its U.S. House seats on the ballot Tuesday, Nov. 3, in a midterm that will decide which party controls each chamber of Congress next year, the NJ State House News Service reported in its statewide races overview. Republicans currently hold a narrow 219-214 House majority, and Decision Desk HQ's forecast, cited in the overview, gives Democrats a 79 percent chance of taking back the House and a 57 percent chance of winning the Senate. Polls in New Jersey are open 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Election Day.

In the Senate race, Democratic incumbent Cory Booker — Newark's former mayor, seeking a third term — faces Republican Justin Murphy, a former Tabernacle deputy mayor who won his primary with 33.4 percent of the vote, according to the overview. The two debated Oct. 8 at Rider University. Also on the Senate ballot are Veronica Fernandez of the End the Corruption Party and Joanne Kuniansky of the Socialist Workers Party, the overview reported.

Newark's own House district, NJ-10, is a rematch for the third straight election: Democratic incumbent LaMonica McIver, who won the seat in a 2024 special election and kept it in that year's general election after serving on the Newark municipal council, faces Republican Carmen Bucco, a tailor and former Belleville school board member, the overview reported. McIver has pleaded not guilty to federal charges stemming from her arrest outside the Delaney Hall detention facility last year and says she was conducting congressional oversight. In neighboring NJ-11, which covers Essex County suburbs, Democratic incumbent Analilia Mejia faces Republican Joe Hathaway again after beating him in an April special election held to complete the term of now-Governor Mikie Sherrill, according to the overview.