New Jersey voters elect Nellie Pou to late Rep. Bill Pascrell’s House seat

State Sen. Nellie Pou will succeed Rep. Bill Pascrell, who died in August, as the 9th District's House representative. (Dana DiFilippo | New Jersey Monitor)

Nellie Pou will be the first Latina to represent New Jersey in Congress after a tighter-than-expected race was announced early Wednesday afternoon.

Pou, 68, a state senator, jumped into the race after Rep. Bill Pascrell died Aug. 21 following a prolonged hospital stay. She was selected to replace him on the ballot in the 9th Congressional District at a special convention one week later.

Pou won with 50.6% of the vote, or 123,772 ballots, while 112,936 votes (about 46%) went to Republican Billy Prempeh, the Associated Press reported Wednesday, with 95% of the vote in.

That's closer than the margin between Pascrell and Prempeh in 2020, when Pascrell took 82,457 and Prempeh took 65,365, according to election data.

Pascrell, also a Democrat, had been seeking his 15th term in Congress. The 9th District, largely a collection of towns in Bergen and Passaic counties, is heavily Latino and Hispanic, with the community making up more than 40% of the population.

Pou has served in the state Legislature since 1997. There, she also succeeded Pascrell after he left the Assembly to serve in Congress. Pou moved to the state Senate in 2012, where she currently serves as the majority caucus chair. She also chairs the chamber's commerce committee and serves as vice-chair of the judiciary committee.

She has been the New Jersey Legislative Latino Caucus Chair since 2006. She was the first Latina elected to represent the 35th Legislative District.

Pou was born and raised in Paterson to parents who moved here from Puerto Rico in 1953, according to her campaign website. She attended Paterson Public Schools and, until recently, worked several different public jobs in Paterson.