Austin Johnson, an independent candidate for New Jersey’s 1st Congressional District, has ended his campaign after a petition review left him short of the 250 valid signatures needed to qualify for the general election ballot.
The New Jersey Globe reported this week that Johnson filed 328 signatures under the “For the People Party” label as part of his campaign this cycle, but that an administrative law judge later determined a significant number of them could not be counted.
The report added that 69 signatures came from voters who live outside the district, reducing Johnson’s valid total to just under the minimum threshold, following a challenge from an individual identified as someone supportive of the Camden County Democratic Committee and those candidates backed by the organization.
New Jersey’s 1st Congressional District covers all of Camden County, along with portions of Burlington and Gloucester counties. The district includes Camden, Cherry Hill, and other South Jersey communities in the Philadelphia metropolitan area, and has been represented by Democratic Rep. Donald Norcross since 2014.
Johnson ran for the same seat during the 2024 election cycle, though election records show he did not use a specific ballot label at the time. During that initial attempt, he earned 2,091 votes, coming in fourth behind Norcross, Republican Teddy Liddell, and Green Party candidate Robin Brownfield.
Johnson will not contest the decision and confirmed to the Globe that he had withdrawn from the race. As he was the only independent or third party candidate seeking to get on the ballot, voters in New Jersey’s 1st Congressional District will only see Norcross and Republican Damon Galdo on the ballot in November.
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