New Jersey's 9th congressional district
| New Jersey's 9th congressional district | |
|---|---|
Interactive map of district boundaries since January 3, 2023 | |
| Representative | |
| Distribution |
|
| Population (2023) | 770,658 |
| Median household income | $86,044 |
| Ethnicity |
|
| Cook PVI | D+2 |
New Jersey's 9th congressional district is an urban congressional district in the U.S. state of New Jersey, and is currently represented in Congress by Democrat Nellie Pou following the death of Bill Pascrell in 2024, first elected in 1996 from the old 8th district. The 9th district consists largely of municipalities in Bergen and Passaic Counties.
Due to redistricting following the 2010 census, portions of the old 9th district were shifted to the 5th district and the new 8th district, as part of a reduction in congressional districts from 13 to 12 in New Jersey. The new congressional map resulted in Pascrell's hometown of Paterson being added to the 9th district, which had been represented by Steve Rothman, a fellow Democrat who, like Pascrell, entered Congress after winning a seat in the 1996 election. In 2012, both incumbents ran for their party's nomination for the seat in the June primary, which Pascrell won. Later that year, Pascrell defeated Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, the Republican nominee, in the general election. He ran for 5 more terms before dying at the age of 87.
In the 2024 election, the district shifted dramatically to the right, voting by 1.1 points for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump after having previously voted for Democrat Joe Biden over Trump by 19 points in 2020. The Democratic congressional candidate, Nellie Pou, won by 5 points over the Republican Billy Prempeh, a much narrower margin than previous congressional races. Pou was elected to succeed Pascrell and took office in January 2025. It was one of 13 congressional districts that voted for Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election while simultaneously electing a Democrat in the 2024 House of Representatives elections.