Sujit Singh, a technology consultant who nearly unseated the incumbent mayor of West Windsor in this year’s elections, will run for Congress next year in New Jersey’s 12th congressional district.
Singh, who would be the first member of New Jersey’s burgeoning South Asian community elected to Congress if he wins, joins a growing pack of Democratic candidates hoping to succeed retiring Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing).
“I am running for Congress because families in New Jersey’s 12th district deserve leadership rooted in service, accountability, and compassion,” Singh said in his campaign announcement. “Our district is one of the most diverse in the nation, and our communities deserve a representative who listens, includes, and delivers measurable results.”
Singh works at an India-based technology and consulting firm and said he “is currently contributing to a major enterprise transformation initiative at the Inter-American Development Bank”; he also served on the board of a nonprofit that assists disabled New Jerseyans via group homes and in-home care. He lives in West Windsor, a majority-Asian American suburb of around 30,000 people next door to Princeton.
Earlier this year, Singh made his first bid for elected office, running against West Windsor Mayor Hemant Marathe in the town’s nonpartisan municipal elections. Singh’s West Windsor Together slate criticized some development projects in the town, but there were also partisan dimensions to the race; Marathe is generally known to be a Republican despite West Windsor’s deep-blue lean, while Singh was supported by the West Windsor Democrats and ran with endorsements from Senator Andy Kim and State Sen. Vin Gopal (D-Long Branch).
The end result was very close: Marathe won 51%-48%, well down from his more convincing victories in 2017 and 2021. (In 2024, West Windsor voters had overwhelmingly rejected an effort to switch the town’s elections from nonpartisan to partisan, which might have harmed Marathe’s re-election chances.)
A month after that loss, Singh is now setting his sights higher by running for the 12th congressional district, a deep-blue Central Jersey seat that is among the nation’s most racially diverse.
He’s not alone. Also running for Watson Coleman’s seat are Assemblywoman Verlina Reynolds-Jackson (D-Trenton), Plainfield Mayor Adrian Mapp, East Brunswick Mayor Brad Cohen, Somerset County Commissioner Shanel Robinson (D-Franklin), and fitness studio owner Kyle Little; State Sen. Andrew Zwicker (D-South Brunswick), former Energy Department official Jay Vaingankar, and attorney Squire Servance are all considering joining the field as well.
Many of those declared or prospective Democratic candidates have long histories and deep connections in politics, which may make it tougher for less-established contenders like Singh to break through. Like many outsider candidates, though, Singh argued that his new arrival to the political scene could be a strength rather than a weakness.
“Each of my fellow candidates has contributed meaningfully to public service,” Singh said. “My experience comes from outside the political establishment – from working directly with families, nonprofits, and public institutions. I’ve seen firsthand how federal policies shape daily life, and I will fight for solutions that are practical, inclusive, and focused on the people who need them most.”
