Green Party candidate Lily Benavides has announced a 21-county strategy to promote her write-in campaign for New Jersey governor, after being denied ballot access earlier this year following a petition challenge from the Morris County Democratic Committee.
In an October 8 statement launching the effort, the Benavides for Governor campaign reported it had already made stops in half of New Jersey’s counties and would continue to engage voters directly through appearances at debates, rallies, festivals, and community events. The campaign, managed by former Green gubernatorial candidate Madelyn Hoffman, said the effort includes visiting every county by the general election.
“The goal here is to let New Jersey voters know that they have another alternative for governor besides the two mainstream candidates,” Benavides said, referencing Democratic nominee Mikie Sherrill and Republican nominee Jack Ciattarelli. “But if you stand against the genocide in Gaza as many in New Jersey do, neither candidate will represent that point of view as governor.”
Benavides, a co-chair of the national party’s Latinx Caucus and a former Democratic New Hampshire state representative, replaced Steven Zielinski as the party’s gubernatorial candidate in August. Zielinski had initially announced his candidacy last year with Benavides as his running mate but later withdrew due to serious health concerns. Benavides stepped in with Zielinski’s endorsement, naming Lisa Ryan as her running mate.
As a minor party under New Jersey law, the Green Party was required to collect 2,000 valid petition signatures to qualify for the general election ballot, with Zielinski initially submitting double that number. After Benavides was selected as the new candidate, the process had to begin anew, with the campaign submitting 2,434 signatures, nearly 500 more than required.
However, the Morris County Democratic Committee later challenged the validity of these signatures, leading to a legal dispute that ultimately disqualified over 300 of them. That was enough to leave Benavides under the threshold needed to qualify for the ballot.
“Sitting in the virtual courtroom watching the attorney for the Morris County Democratic Party challenge name after name of people whose names appeared to be either Muslim or Arab American or Latin America was akin to sitting through a virtual ICE raid,” Hoffman said. “Neither Democrats nor Republicans care about disenfranchising the majority of the people in New Jersey.”
Stops on the tour so far have included the September 21 gubernatorial debate at Rider College in Mercer County, a protest against police violence in Middlesex County, and multiple actions in support of Gaza across Passaic, Hudson, and Camden counties. The campaign has also participated in events focused on ranked choice voting, immigration justice, and environmental advocacy.
The campaign also more recently attended a second gubernatorial debate in New Brunswick, though Benavides was not allowed on stage due to a debate qualification threshold of $580,000. “The cards are stacked against independent political parties and candidates who refuse to bow down to AIPAC and other big money PACs,” said ahead of time. “These obstacles to real democracy won’t deter us.”
The Governor of New Jersey has no responsibility over American foreign policy, so the Gaza and AIPAC nonsense is irrelevant, tiresome and takes time away from discussing what this candidate would actually DO as Governor (aside from grandstanding).
That’s nice, vote Sherrill