Editor’s note: With Mikie Sherrill resigning her Congressional seat to become NJ Governor, South Orange and Maplewood will help decide the crowded Democratic primary for NJ-11. Village Green is profiling candidates. Primary day is Feb. 5, but Mail-In Ballots started mailing out to voters on Dec. 22. Early voting begins January 29. Read more election coverage here.
In New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District Democratic primary race, which is shaping up as a contest among 11 candidates over who can best take on President Donald J. Trump and his supporters in Congress, Passaic County Commissioner John Bartlett’s pitch includes that he fought Trump on immigrants’ rights at the Supreme Court — and won — preparing him to defend democracy in Washington, D.C.
“I’m ready to take on Trump and the MAGA Republicans who are tearing down our democracy and making life more expensive for the rest of us,” Bartlett, a voting rights attorney, said recently.
In an interview with The Village Green, Bartlett said voters in Passaic County and Essex County, which make up NJ-11, have shared values and want the same things — affordable health care, their constitution rights protected and an affordable cost of living.
“Broadly speaking, people are focused on affordability, and they’re focused on democracy,” Barlett told the Village Green. “They’re focused on the vital need to send somebody to Washington who has the experience of working on voting rights issues and protecting vulnerable communities. And they find that candidate in me.”
He said voters, with good reason, are particularly focused on healthcare affordability. “And that’s why one of the very first things I did was make a commitment that on day one in Congress, I’ll sponsor a public healthcare option for health coverage.”
Bartlett, whose campaign slogan is “Public Service Over Self Service,” has been a Passaic County Commissioner for 12 years, where, he said, he is proud of his record of lowering the property tax rate by bringing in $960 million in federal funding to the area, including money for highways, transit, bike and pedestrian safety, new bus facilities, and redevelopment on Routes 46, 3, 23, and 80.
“Seeking out those federal funds is part of the story of how I have been able to lower county property tax rates every year for the last nine years. Not by doing less, but by finding new resources and doing more,” Bartlett said.
Bartlett said one of things he wants Village Green readers to know about him is that he has “deep Essex County roots.”
His father, who spent his career as a country pediatrician who made house calls, grew up in Montclair. The first home Bartlett owned was in West Orange on Eagle Rock Avenue. His first law office was in Roseland. He currently works in Newark. In 2004, he said, he ran the Essex County “meetup” organizing for John Kerry for president. He and his family still attend church at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Montclair. “I’m now a Passaic County commissioner and live in Wayne, but those Essex County roots are part of my story as well.”
A graduate of Brown University and Harvard Law School, Bartlett also studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he met his wife, Dr. Khyati Joshi. They have a 21-year-old son.
“Hebrew University is not where you’d predict a nice Christian boy and a Hindu Indian-American woman to find each other and fall in love,” he said. “But that’s our story, and that has shaped so much of what we’ve done since then around religious and racial minority communities and making sure that everybody has an equal shot in this country.”
The recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids in Minnesota, and closer to home, in Morris County, where a laundromat was recently raided and 11 people were taken into custody including a high school student who was there doing his laundry, have angered him and most New Jerseyans, he said.
Before New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy left office, Bartlett, who represents 150,000 immigrants in Passaic County, called for the governor to sign into law three immigrant protection bills before leaving office. (To the disappointment of immigrant advocates, Murphy signed only one of the three bills, saying the others could unintentionally undermine current New Jersey protections.)
“One of the most important things that I want do when I get to Congress is impeach [Director of Homeland Security] Kristi Noem and use the full weight of Congress’s investigatory power to unmask ICE and its abuses,” he said. “And then I want real reform to contain ICE.”
Bartlett has received the endorsement of the Little Falls Democratic Committee Chairman Adam Zurbruegg, Little Falls Mayor James Damiano and other Little Falls local officials and the Port Authority Police Benevolent Association. Within five days of launching his campaign, Bartlett announced that he had raised more than $517,000.
With NJ-11 being the first 2026 Congressional election, ahead of the midterms in November, Bartlett said, the entire country will be watching the NJ-11 general election in April to see how New Jersey responds to what the Trump Administration has done so far.
Bartlett emphasized how important it is for people to participate in their democracy and vote in the Democratic Primary, even though the election is on a Thursday in February, because Democrats need a candidate who can win the general election in April.
“It’s important that people take this choice seriously and recognize the way in which the choice of a candidate for the Democratic Party is going shape the entire 2026 House of Representatives political debate as we step off as the first race in the country,” said Bartlett. “This is a race anyone can win, and if you see a candidate with a record of results, then that’s the candidate that can do amazing things for you as a representative in Congress.”
Bartlett invites voters to read his campaign website and to reach out to him through social media.
“One of the things that my constituents in Passaic County will tell you is that I am always responsive,” he said, “And if folks reach out, I will reach back.”
