New Jersey's 5th congressional district

"NJ-5" redirects here. The term may also refer to New Jersey Route 5.
New Jersey's 5th congressional district
Map
Interactive map of district boundaries since January 3, 2023
Representative
Distribution
  • 86.98% urban
  • 13.02% rural
Population (2023)767,729
Median household
income		$123,326[1]
Ethnicity
Cook PVID+4[2]

New Jersey's 5th congressional district is represented by Democrat Josh Gottheimer, who has served in Congress since 2017. The district stretches across the entire northern border of the state and contains most of Bergen County, as well as parts of Passaic County and Sussex County.

Historically, most of the areas in the district have generally been favorable for Republicans. This is especially true of the western portion, which contains some of the most Republican areas in the Northeast. However, Bergen County has trended Democratic in recent elections, though not as overwhelmingly as in the more urbanized southern portion of Bergen County, this latter portion being in the ninth congressional district. Partly due to a strong performance in Bergen County, Josh Gottheimer unseated 14-year Republican incumbent Scott Garrett in 2016. This made Garrett the only one of the state's 12 incumbents to lose reelection that year and marked the first time a Democrat won this seat since 1930.[3]

Since redistricting in the early 1990s, this congressional district has been L-shaped, comprising the rural northern and western parts of New Jersey along with parts of Passaic and Bergen County. After redistricting in late 2021, which was based on the 2020 census, the 5th lost all of its towns in Warren County. It also contains less of Sussex County and includes more of eastern Bergen County than was the case during the 2010s, making the district somewhat more Democratic.[4]

  1. ^ "My Congressional District".
  2. ^ "2022 Cook PVI: District Map and List". July 12, 2022.
  3. ^ Neuman, William (November 9, 2016). "Josh Gottheimer Defeats Scott Garrett in New Jersey Congressional Race". The New York Times. Accessed November 19, 2016.
  4. ^ "New Jersey Congressional Districts: 2022-2031" (PDF). New Jersey Redistricting Commission. December 22, 2021. Retrieved December 30, 2021.