Three Democratic candidates are vying for two seats to represent New Jersey’s 28th Legislative District in the New Jersey Assembly: Cleopatra Tucker, incumbent; Garnet Hall; and Frank McGehee. Two candidates — Joy Freeman and Willie S. Jetti — are running in the Republican primary. The primary takes place on June 6, 2023. Read more election coverage here.
Garnet R. Hall is a candidate for Assembly seeking election to represent the newly redistricted 28th Legislative District, which consists of Maplewood, South Orange, the West and South Wards of Newark and Hillside.
Garnet has been a Maplewood resident for 35 years and currently serves as Deputy Essex County Clerk, a position she assumed following a decades long career in Executive Corporate Sales. She is also Vice-Chair of the Maplewood Democratic Committee for the past ten years and a long-time Maplewood District Leader.
When Garnet was only 8 years old, she experienced a defining moment in her life when she saw and heard the Rev. Martin Luther King in Montclair; the man who was a legend in her home and community urged active involvement and non-violent protest in the Civil Rights movement.
Her father’s work as a shop steward instilled in her the value of collective bargaining and the importance of unions to ensure living wages, job security, guaranteed pension and benefits and workplace safety.
Garnet Hall
Her mother’s 30-year career at Essex County Hospital Center inspired her abiding interest in health care, ensuring all New Jerseyans have access to affordable, quality health care and high-quality facilities.
Garnet fully supports reproductive freedom of choice for all New Jerseyan residents regardless of immigration status, further that there is access to services through Medicaid expansion, required insurance company coverage and expanded scope of practice to include physicians’ assistants, midwives, and advanced practice nurses.
She believes racial and economic justice can be attained only when people of every race receive fair treatment with equitable opportunities and outcomes for all, and that disparate treatment of minorities in education, housing and entitlements is the reality of institutional racism.
Climate change is an existential threat to our way of life, and we have an obligation to future generations to protect and preserve our land, air, and water. She supports the Energy Master Plan reducing greenhouse gas emissions 80% by 2050, believes the historic Environmental Justice Law will reduce the public health threats caused by poor air and water quality, waste-disposal problems, and high energy consumption in our cities. The future demands green buildings, and clean, renewable wind and solar energy.
Far too many New Jersey students do not receive the quality education guaranteed them by the State Constitution and Garnet will work to ensure that facility improvements continue, the best and brightest are attracted to the teaching profession, and will fight to see the minimum state teacher salary is substantially raised, that the state curriculum requiring Amistad, LGBT and AAPI culture and contributions are taught in every school district, that all students, especially those marginalized such as transgender and those with disabilities are supported.
Garnet demands an end to gun violence and notes that New Jersey is one of the safest states in the nation due to our strong gun laws. She advocates for increased support for victims of domestic violence and better enforcement of red flag laws.
Garnet and her husband, George Hall, are the parents of two adult children who attended the South Orange-Maplewood School District from kindergarten through Columbia High School. Her son is a Newark Police Officer, her daughter a registered nurse and they are the proud grandparents to two.
Garnet studied at Fairleigh Dickinson University. She is running with the Essex County Democratic Organization on the first all African-American women ticket with Sen. Renee Burgess and Assemblywoman Cleopatra Tucker.
