Rep. Pascrell Successor Likely to Also Be Pro-Israel

As Democrats in New Jersey's 9th District begin working around the clock to replace the late Rep. Bill Pascrell as their nominee for Congress, signs are strong that the veteran lawmaker's successor will be someone who shares his strong pro-Israel stance — newsworthy in a district with a growing Muslim population.

Almost immediately after Pascrell's death last week at age 87, Democrat committee members from the 9th District's towns in Passaic, Bergen, and Hudson County began to meet and discuss selection of a new nominee. 

Late Monday afternoon, the Democrat chairmen from all three counties in the district — Paul Juliano (Bergen), John Currie (Passaic), and Craig Guy (Hudson) — endorsed State Sen. Nellie Pou for nomination. Pou, 68, would be the first Hispanic member of Congress from New Jersey. 

Like Pascrell, Pou has a long history of support for Israel and in 2014 traveled to Israel with the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey.

"[She] has been a supporter of Jewish causes in Trenton," Federation CEO Jason Shames told the Jewish Insider. "If she is, indeed, the nominee, we are optimistic that we will have a great working relationship."

Under New Jersey election law, a majority of the committee members must select a nominee by Aug. 29 in order to replace Pascrell on the November ballot.

The 9th District is about 42% Hispanic. But the Palestinian population in Paterson — the largest city in the district — is growing, and there was at first considerable interest in Andre Sayegh, its mayor since 2018, as a possible successor to Pascrell.

But three days after becoming a candidate, on Monday, Sayegh stunned 9th District Democrats by announcing he would not run.

Although a poll conducted by the Muslim civil-rights organization Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) reportedly showed Sayegh an easy winner among likely Democratic voters district-wide, the nomination will be decided not by voters in a primary but by a small group of party leaders.

John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.