Clifton Councilwoman Rosie Pino has built up a substantial financial edge over Air Force veteran Billy Prempeh in the GOP primary for New Jersey’s 9th congressional district – but both Republicans are well behind the Democratic congresswoman they hope to beat, Rep. Nellie Pou (D-North Haledon).
Pino, who entered the race at the beginning of the most recent quarter, reported raising $155,509 over the last three months. After spending close to half of that, she ended September with $82,558 on-hand.
As for Prempeh, the frequent Republican candidate – he was the GOP nominee for the 9th district in 2020, 2022, and 2024 – raised $16,281 over the course of the 3rd quarter and has $10,953 on-hand. That’s better than his first two quarters in the race, during which he raised a combined $1,433, but still gives him very little money to work with. (Then again, Prempeh also raised almost nothing during his 2024 campaign and still came within five percentage points of winning the seat.)
Pou, on the other hand, raised $491,051 during the 3rd quarter, and has raised more than $1.3 million since the beginning of the year; the first-term congresswoman has just over $1.1 million stockpiled to defend herself ahead of next year’s election.
After Pou’s 9th congressional district unexpectedly voted for Donald Trump last year, Republicans quickly began eagerly strategizing about how to flip the Paterson-based district, long one of New Jersey’s Democratic strongholds.
So far, though, the Republican primary to beat Pou has gone surprisingly under-the-radar, and Pino’s and Prempeh’s modest fundraising totals indicate that donors haven’t gotten fully engaged. Passaic County GOP chairman Peter Murphy predicted to Politico in August that lots more Republicans might soon join the race, but nearly two months later, that has not yet come to pass.
