After Jersey City’s runoff election on Tuesday, progressive candidates scored a historic sweep in one of New Jersey’s most populous municipalities. 

Many New Jerseyans saw the runoff election results as another in a series of progressive wins across the region. 

Jersey City Councilman James Solomon defeated former Gov. Jim McGreevey in the mayoral race, winning over 68% of the vote and picking up support from across the progressive umbrella. The landslide results mark a decisive victory for progressive candidates working to reform traditional machine politics, which they believe favor party-backed candidates.

Ben Dziobek, executive director of the Climate Revolution Action Network of New Jersey, said the victories signal a wider challenge to establishment politics while keeping firmly within the Democratic fold.

“This was a race about if we can defeat machine politics,” said Dziobek, whose organization formerly endorsed progressive candidates in multiple Jersey City races. “Is it to say that they are attacking or trying to defeat the Democrats? No, I mean, they are Democrats.” 

He highlighted that the new cohort of progressive candidates differs from the typical status-quo Democrats. While McGreevey was endorsed by Gov. Phil Murphy, mayor-elect Solomon was backed by dozens of advocacy groups.

After the November general election, Solomon had cross-endorsements with Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) candidates Joel Brooks and Jake Ephros, who were elected to Ward B and Ward D City Council seats, respectively. Brooks and Ephros are the first two openly socialist-leaning candidates elected in New Jersey’s history in over 100 years. Ward A elected Denise Ridley and Ward C elected Tom Zuppa, creating a Working Families Party majority in Jersey City for the first time ever.

Ephros, who ran as an independent candidate, emphasized the importance of staying untethered to outside influences. His campaign included a push for publicly-owned social housing, better mass transit in Jersey City, a municipal affordable grocery store, and a green new deal for the city.

“We’ve seen time and time again so many politicians, even if they mean well, even if they have good ideas, even if they care a lot, if they are dependent on the same kinds of corporate donors or the same kinds of political machines that have got us into the affordability crisis and the quality of life crisis that we’re in right now, then we can’t depend on them,” said Ephros, a teacher, union organizer, and democratic socialist.

While Ephros is endorsed by Democrats such as Assemblywoman-elect Katie Brennan, he stressed the need to lead with an independent political identity, serving the working class people. He believes the Democratic Party has been “unwilling” to put working class people in power, instead prioritizing profits.

“I think it’s important, for myself and for candidates who are intentional about building independent working class power, to keep something of an arm’s distance from, especially, more of the establishment power players in the Democratic Party and from that machine apparatus that has just been controlling the party for so long,” said Ephros.

 “The source of power is not with individual elected people, but it’s with organized, working people. That’s the most important relationship for me,” he added.

Still, he noted, collaboration with reform-minded Democrats will be key to implementing his platform as he moves from the campaign trail to elected office.

Ephros, with the help of Brennan, Solomon, and Brooks, is moving to make Jersey City more affordable. At the city level, Ephros is pushing for universal rent control. This includes expanding municipal code 260 and eliminating loopholes that exclude many Jersey City residents from an affordable quality of life. The proposal targets a city where the cost of living is 26% higher than the national average.

Ephros entered state politics through a number of pivotal events, including his own unconstitutional arrest for protesting an ICE detention jail in 2020, the charges of which a judge ruled out in 2022. He also volunteered as part of Joel Brooks’ November 2021 campaign, when Brooks, running as part of the DSA, lost by just under 200 votes to incumbent Mira Prinz-Arey for Ward B Councilperson.

Energized by Brooks’ campaign, running on funding for public housing and public schools, as well as a green new deal, Ephros also started working as a union organizer with 1199 SEIU healthcare workers. In 2022, Ephros helped launch a right-to-counsel campaign in Jersey City. 

“Our DSA chapter did not just want to wait for years to get to work again. We don’t think that elections are the only important site of politics. And so we organized a campaign around the most crucial talking point we heard at the doors over and over again, which was the cost of living and housing and renting in particular,” said Ephros.

Serving as co-chair of the campaign, he knocked on thousands of doors, alongside volunteers, to advocate for tenants’ rights to legal representation. DSA members and volunteers in New York City built similar grassroots momentum for Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani.

“Zohran Mamdani won in New York City, and that was a massive win, but if we can replicate these wins for the progressive left in Jersey City and in places like Newark and expand into Essex and Hudson and Union County, I think we can make sure we can deliver for working class New Jerseyans,” said Dziobek of Climate Revolution Action Network.

The climate activist predicted a close relationship between mayor-elect Solomon and governor-elect Mikie Sherrill, especially their shared goals of building out affordable housing.

“It’s a strong signal to Mikie Sherrill, who received a massive amount of votes from Jersey City, and Hudson County as a whole, that this area and this state is looking for progressive representation and to fight back against the Trump administration,” said Dziobek.

In terms of climate justice goals, Dziobek plans to work closely with the incoming elected public servants to fight the turnpike expansion in Jersey City, pass the Liberty State Park Protection Act, increase access to public transit and the PATH, and create clean energy and climate resiliency projects throughout the city. This includes the Climate Superfund Act, which would enact millions of dollars worth of flood resiliency programs.

While many feared New Jersey would flip to become a Republican-led state in 2026, Hudson County has stayed consistently blue. In November, Mikie Sherrill won over 74% of Hudson County’s votes, compared to 56% statewide. 

Maintaining the heavy appeal to Democratic values, Ephros and Brooks ran a mirrored DSA platform across the Jersey City wards. As labor and tenant organizers, their collective goal is to push for a political, social, and economic system designed to meet people’s needs rather than to generate profit. Dziobek highlighted the importance of delivering a new era of politics.

“We need each other on the left, right now, whether you are a progressive or a socialist. We do need each other in terms of fighting back against the further and further right wing Trump administration and Republican Party,” said Ephros.