New Jersey Primary 2024: Key races for Election Day

Voters are heading to the polls across the state on Tuesday to cast their ballots for New Jersey’s closed 2024 primary election.

NEW JERSEY - New Jersey Democrats and Republicans are heading to the polls on Tuesday to cast their ballots for the state’s closed 2024 primary election.

Here's everything you need to know for Election Day on June 4, from where to vote, to who's running for each race:

Election Day

If you didn’t send in a mail-in or absentee ballot, polls are open on Election Day from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. at these polling locations.

Key races

President

President Joe Biden and Trump are on the ballot, despite already being their parties' presumptive nominees.

Trump’s name will appear on the ballot Tuesday for the first time since his historic conviction on felony crimes as a handful of states hold the last Republican presidential primary contests of 2024.

U.S. Senate

U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey announced in March that he wouldn’t run in the Democratic primary as he faces federal corruption charges, but he filed on Monday to run as an independent. His name will not appear on the ballot.

On the GOP side, it's a four-way contest but southern New Jersey hotel developer Curtis Bashaw has gotten significant county party backing, and Mendham Borough Mayor Christine Serrano Glassner won former President Donald Trump's endorsement.

While New Jersey hasn't elected a Republican to the Senate since 1972, the stakes are high in the divided Senate where Democrats have a narrow majority.

Democrats:

Patricia Campos Medina
Kevin Cupples
Lawrence Hamm
Andrew Kim
Patrick Merrill

Republicans:

Curtis Bashaw
Michael Estrada
Albert Harshaw
Shirley Maia-Cusick
Gregg Mele
Justin Murphy
Christine Serrano Glassner
Alex Zdan

U.S. House

Candidates on your ballot will be dictated by the congressional district you live in. These races are taking place in the Philadelphia area:

District 1: Burlington, Camden and Gloucester counties

Democrat: incumbent Donald Norcross
Republican: Damon Galdo and Nicholas Whitelock

District 2: Atlantic, Cape May, Cumberland, Gloucester, Ocean and Salem counties

Democrats: Tim Alexander, Carolyn Rush, Brandon Saffold and Joe Salerno
Republican: incumbent Jeff Van Drew

District 3: Burlington, Mercer and Monmouth counties

Democrats: Joseph Cohn, Herbert C. Conaway Jr., Carol Murphy and Sarah Schoengood
Republican: Shirley Maia-Cusick and Gregory Sobocinski

The Democratic Socialists of America are also backing a protest vote for delegates to the national convention against Biden over his handling of the violence in Gaza. Democrats in delegate districts across the state will have the chance to vote for "uncommitted" on the delegate ballot.

New this year for Democrats will be the demise of the so-called county line, the ballot system in which those with party backing got grouped together and those without it were frequently listed in what was known as "ballot Siberia."

The end of the practice stems from a lawsuit Kim and other Democratic candidates brought in federal court, alleging the system unfairly put a thumb on the scale for those with party connections. A federal judge halted the system for this year's Democratic primary only, as no Republicans joined the suit.

Practically, the change means that candidates for office will be grouped together, as is done in every other state.

But that won't go for Republicans — whose county parties that still back candidates have retained the system. State legislative leaders have said they would take up the ballot issue but so far haven't passed any legislation changing how the state conducts primaries.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.