Cumberland County Democrats endorsed Tim Alexander at their convention last night, giving Alexander his first official party endorsement in this year’s campaign for South Jersey’s 2nd congressional district.
The county party did not release vote totals at the convention, and did not respond to an inquiry from the New Jersey Globe. All five of the Democrats running to unseat Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-Dennis) competed for the endorsement: Alexander, Cape May Mayor Zack Mullock, former USAID official Bayly Winder, local activist Terri Reese, and math teacher Bill Finn.
When Mullock entered the race last month, he included on his list of supporters Cumberland Democratic Chair Kevin McCann, but McCann insisted earlier this week that he had never made an endorsement in the race. Still, Mullock was put forward last night as the recommended candidate of the Cumberland Democrats’ screening committee, a more leadership-dominated body than the wider county committee electorate.
“Receiving the endorsement of the Cumberland County Regular Democratic Organization is a tremendous honor,” Alexander said in a statement. “Cumberland County helped shape my commitment to public service, and I am deeply grateful to every member of the organization for their trust, support, and confidence in this campaign. I do not take that trust lightly.”
Also winning party support last night was Robert Austino, a current county commissioner who is running to reclaim his old post as county sheriff. Austino, who was previously sheriff from 2009 until his re-election loss in 2023, defeated Mike Santiago, a former Millville mayor and county undersheriff.
In addition to the county sheriff’s office, three GOP-held county commissioner seats are up this year; Cumberland Democrats will hold a separate convention to award endorsements in that race at a later date.
Alexander, a civil rights attorney and former police detective, ran for the same congressional seat in both 2022 and 2024, winning Cumberland Democrats’ endorsement for his 2022 campaign. In 2024, Cumberland Democrats were engulfed in an intraparty civil war, and made no endorsement in the race for Congress; Alexander ended up carrying the county, but narrowly lost the primary to Joe Salerno.
The intraparty battles from 2024 don’t seem to have fully healed, and Alexander went into yesterday’s convention with the public support of some leaders of the party’s anti-McCann faction.
The other five county Democratic organizations in the 2nd district will issue their own endorsements in the coming weeks, with Atlantic Democrats – who make up the largest share of the county’s primary electorate – holding their convention in two days. How much those endorsements will ultimately matter, however, is up for debate; Alexander lost the 2024 primary to the better-funded Salerno despite having far more party endorsements, and both Mullock and Winder have thus far significantly outraised Alexander this time around.
