Jennifer Keyes-Maloney defeats James Gee to become the next Mercer County Democratic Chair
The Mercer County Democratic Committee recruits and supports Democratic candidates in primary and general elections. Yesterday, the committee voted on its next chair.
Jennifer Keyes-Maloney, an Ewing Councilwoman and executive director of the New Jersey Association of State Colleges and Universities, won in a landslide with 242 votes. James Gee, a Democratic strategist and former chief of staff to Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman, received 85 votes.
Mercer County Commissioner Sam Frisby will continue serving as vice chairman after running unopposed.
Each candidate had three minutes to deliver a speech before committee members voted by secret ballot. Keyes-Maloney, who was endorsed by current chair and East Windsor Mayor Janice Mironov, began by thanking Mironov and reaffirming that she would “continue to strengthen the foundation we built together” while acknowledging that the party needs to “evolve.”
“The political landscape is changing; the county line is gone, and the ways in which people communicate, organize, and participate continue to evolve,” said Keyes-Maloney.
The New Jersey Monitor reported last year that Gov. Phil Murphy signed legislation that effectively eliminated the county line system.
The candidates’ speeches reflected a broader conversation taking place within the Democratic Party across the country about its future direction amid the current Republican administration and the growing influence of progressive voices within the party.
Gee was more critical of the committee’s current approach, saying, “We need to run a different kind of Democratic Party.” He pointed to the momentum of young progressive candidates in New York and across the country.
Although Gee said he is not concerned about the label “democratic socialism,” which has become associated with many progressive candidates, he told the Trenton Journal that the term is simply “slang.” He said he believes it reflects concerns that “people need jobs, trillionaires can’t have everything; why, in a place where you can make a trillion dollars, you also can’t have healthcare?”
Keyes-Maloney did not outline a specific policy agenda she believes the county should pursue. Instead, she said, “It’s not about me or James.”
“We start with the grassroots ideas of the people in this room who represent our elected officials around the county,” she continued.
“We’re going to work with the municipal committees; each of the towns has one, because I think they have the best sense of what needs to happen in their communities.”
Both candidates cited diversity as a key issue, but Gee emphasized what he described as a lack of representation from Trenton.
“If you look around the room, Trenton is the biggest municipality; Trenton ain’t in this room,” he said. “There’s no Black people in this room, no Indian people in this room; if you go anywhere else, that’s who runs the government.”
