Bonnie Watson Coleman | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait, 2014 | |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromNew Jersey's12th district | |
| Assumed office January 3, 2015 | |
| Preceded by | Rush Holt Jr. |
| Majority Leader of theNew Jersey General Assembly | |
| In office January 12, 2006 – January 12, 2010 | |
| Preceded by | Joseph J. Roberts |
| Succeeded by | Joseph Cryan |
| Chair of theNew Jersey Democratic Party | |
| In office February 4, 2002 – February 17, 2006 | |
| Preceded by | Joseph J. Roberts |
| Succeeded by | Joseph Cryan |
| Member of theNew Jersey General Assembly from the15th district | |
| In office January 13, 1998 – January 3, 2015 Serving with Reed Gusciora | |
| Preceded by | Shirley Turner |
| Succeeded by | Elizabeth Maher Muoio |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Bonnie Marie Watson (1945-02-06)February 6, 1945 (age 80) Camden, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 3 |
| Relatives | John Watson (father) |
| Education | Rutgers University, Camden Thomas Edison State University (BA) |
| Signature |  |
| Website | House website Campaign website |
Bonnie Marie Watson Coleman[1] (born February 6, 1945) is an American politician serving as theU.S. representative forNew Jersey's 12th congressional district since 2015. A member of theDemocratic Party, she previously served in theNew Jersey General Assembly from 1998 to 2015 for the15th legislative district. She is the first African-American woman to represent New Jersey in the U.S. House of Representatives.[2]
Watson Coleman was born inCamden, New Jersey, and attendedRutgers University–Camden before receiving a B.A. fromThomas Edison State College in 1985. She began her career in the New Jersey state government, working for the New Jersey State Division on Civil Rights and later serving as director of the Office of Civil Rights, Contract Compliance and Affirmative Action in theNew Jersey Department of Transportation. In the New Jersey General Assembly, she held the position ofMajority Leader from 2006 to 2010.
In 2014, Watson Coleman ran for the U.S. House of Representatives in New Jersey's 12th congressional district to succeed retiring RepresentativeRush Holt. She won the Democraticprimary and later thegeneral election, becoming the first African-American woman elected to represent a New Jersey district in Congress. In the House, she is a member of theCongressional Progressive Caucus and theCongressional Black Caucus, among other caucuses. She co-founded theCongressional Caucus on Black Women and Girls in 2016, as well as the America 250 Caucus to help plan activities for America's semiquincentennial commemoration in 2026. On November 10, 2025, she announced that she would not run for reelection in2026.[3]
In the assembly, Watson Coleman's legislative work includedcriminal justice reform, expandingUrban Enterprise Zones, and expandingpaid family leave. In Congress, she introduced theCROWN Act to prohibithair discrimination and has sponsored other anti-discrimination legislation. She has pursued criminal justice reform through legislation on banning contracts toprivate prisons and worked to expand health coverage for pregnant women with theAffordable Care Act. Watson Coleman has co-sponsored aceasefire resolution in response to theGaza war.[4]
Watson Coleman was born inCamden, New Jersey on February 6, 1945 and graduated fromEwing High School in 1963.[5][6]
Watson Coleman worked for the New Jersey state government for over 28 years before retiring. She began her career in the New Jersey State Division on Civil Rights inNewark as a field representative in the late 1960s. She then joined the Office of Civil Rights, Contract Compliance and Affirmative Action in theNew Jersey Department of Transportation, serving as its first director from 1974 to 1980.[7][5] In 1980, she joined the Department of Community Affairs first as bureau chief before being promoted to assistant commissioner.[7] In this position, she was responsible for the aging, community resources, public guardian, and women divisions.[5] In 1985, she received aB.A. fromThomas Edison State College after briefly attendingRutgers University.[6][5]
In 1994, she joined her father,John S. Watson, a representative in theNew Jersey General Assembly for six terms, in establishing ahuman resources development firm.[5] However, the partnership was short-lived, as he died in 1996.[7]
Watson Coleman served on the Governing Boards Association of State Colleges from 1987 to 1998 and as its chair from 1991 to 1993. She was a member of theEwing Township Planning Board from 1996 to 1997, a member ofThe Richard Stockton College of New Jersey board of trustees from 1981 to 1998 and was its chair from 1990 to 1991.[8]
She has received honorary doctorate degrees from theCollege of New Jersey,Rider University, andStockton University.[2]
In 1998, incumbent RepresentativeShirley Turner of the15th district decided to run for theNew Jersey Senate.[7] Being the same district her father represented, Watson Coleman joined the race. She and DemocratReed Gusciora won the election against two Republican candidates.[9] She served the district until 2015, representingTrenton and parts ofMercer andHunterdon counties.[7][10] She later became the firstAfrican American woman to lead the state party when she was elected chair of theNew Jersey Democratic State Committee on February 4, 2002, serving until 2006. Watson Coleman served as Majority Leader of theNew Jersey General Assembly from 2006 to 2010.[7]
Her legislative achievements in the assembly include increasing theminimum wage, thePaid Family Leave Act, creating the Office of theComptroller, and expandingUrban Enterprise Zones.[11] She took an active role inidentity theft protection[12] and criminal justice reform to reduce recidivism.[13]
She was a member of the joint legislative investigative committee probing the closing of lanes on theGeorge Washington bridge, later known asBridgegate. She resigned from the committee in early 2014 after calling forGovernorChris Christie to resign.[14]
Following the announcement that CongressmanRush Holt would not seek another term in office, Watson Coleman announced her candidacy for the seat inNew Jersey's 12th congressional district in early 2014.[15] Several other candidates joined the primary, including senatorLinda Greenstein, assemblymanUpendra Chivukula, and residentAndrew Zwicker.[16] The primary was considered competitive between Greenstein and Watson Coleman, with each picking up key local endorsements.[16] On June 3, Watson Coleman won theDemocratic primary with 43% of the vote.[16][17] With 60.9% of the vote,[17] she defeated Republican nomineeAlieta Eck and several third party candidates in the November 4 general election[18] Watson Coleman's win made her the first African-American woman elected to represent a New Jersey district in the U.S. House of Representatives.[19]
Watson Coleman ran for reelection in 2016. In the primary, she faced off against Alexander Kucsma, a former mayor andpro-gun,anti-abortion Democrat.[20] She won the primary with 93.6% of the vote.[17] In the general election, she defeated Republican meat wholesaler Steven Uccio with 62.9% of the vote.[17][21] Watson Coleman spent $630,000 in the race, while Uccio spent none.[21]
In 2018, she ran uncontested in the Democratic primary. She easily won reelection against Republican Daryl Kipnis, receiving 68.7% to 31.3% of the vote.[17] Watson Coleman spent around $828,000 while Kipnis spent around $23,000.[22]
She faced off against perennial candidate Lisa McCormick in the 2020 Democratic primary. McCormick attempted to steal Watson Coleman's identity and usedanti-Semitic tropes in her campaign. Watson Coleman won with over 90% of the vote.[23] Watson Coleman later thanked the secretary of state for referring the candidates to the attorney general's office for investigation.[24] She easily won the general election against Republican Mark Razzoli, anOld Bridge Township councilman with 65% of the vote.[25][17] Watson Coleman spent around $819,000 while Razzoli only spent around $1,100.[22]
In the 2022 primary, she ran uncontested. She defeated Republican Darius Mayfield with 63% of the vote in the general election.[17] She spent around $959,000 while Mayfield spent $259,000.[22]
Watson Coleman won the 2024 Democratic primary against former Princeton school board member Daniel Dart with about 87% of the vote.[26]
Watson Coleman has been described as a "progressive"[26] and is a member of theCongressional Progressive Caucus.[27] She is a member of theDemocratic Party.[26]
During the114th Congress, as a member of theHomeland Security committee, she introduced the Homeland Security Drone Assessment and Analysis Act to research and mitigate the risks ofdrones; the House passed the legislation byvoice vote.[28] She introduced the Healthy MOM Act to allow women to enroll in, or change their health coverage if they become pregnant.[29] She also introduced the Stop Online Ammunition Sales Act which would require ID confirmation to purchase ammo on the internet.[30] On March 3, 2015, Watson Coleman participated with fellow Democrats in a boycott of Israeli Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu's speech to Congress.[31] In March 2016, she co-founded theCongressional Caucus on Black Women and Girls with RepresentativesRobin Kelly andYvette D. Clarke to address the socioeconomic issues affecting black women and girls.[32]
In 2017, Watson Coleman introduced the Customer Non-Discrimination Act to prohibit discrimination based on sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity in “public accommodations."[33] That same year, she, alongside RepresentativesJerry Nadler andPramila Jayapal, introduced a resolution tocensure PresidentDonald Trump for his remarks atCharlottesville.[34] She introduced the End For-Profit Prisons Act of 2017 to phase outprivate prison contracts.[7]
In 2019, she voted against a resolution opposing efforts to boycottIsrael and the GlobalBoycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement targeting Israel; the resolution passed 398–17.[35] In October 2020, Watson Coleman co-signed a letter to Secretary of StateMike Pompeo that condemnedAzerbaijan’s offensive operations against theArmenian-populated enclave ofNagorno-Karabakh, denouncedTurkey’s role in theNagorno-Karabakh conflict, and called for an immediate ceasefire.[36]
Watson Coleman introduced theCROWN Act in 2021 to prohibithair discrimination; the bill passed the House but died in the Senate;[37] the bill was reintroduced in 2024.[38] In 2022, she and other representatives were arrested at anabortion rights rally outside theSupreme Court.[39] She sponsored the Semiquincentennial Commemorative Coin Act to celebrateAmerica's 250th anniversary.[40] Alongside a group of other representatives, she reintroduced the Protect Black Women and Girls Act to establish a task force to examine the experiences of black women and girls.[41] Watson Coleman has co-sponsored aceasefire resolution in response to theGaza war.[4]
In a March 2025 op-ed inNewsweek, Watson Coleman called for an arms embargo on Israel and wrote, “We (the United States) must not fool ourselves. We are not merely witnessing agenocide in Gaza; the United States is participating in it and iscomplicit.” She emphasized, “As much as we may have claimed to be working toward a ceasefire over the past year, we were feeding the fire that has engulfed Gaza.”[42]
Watson Coleman is a Co-founder and Co-chair of theCongressional Caucus on Black Women and Girls and the America 250 Caucus. Prominent caucuses she is a member of are below.[27]
In 1972, Watson Coleman married Jim Carter and had one son. They divorced in the early 1980s. In 1995, she married William Coleman. He has two sons from a previous marriage.[50] She is Baptist and resides inEwing Township.[5][51]
Watson Coleman's two sons, William Carter-Watson and Jared C. Coleman, pleaded guilty to holding up theKids "R" Us store at Mercer Mall with a handgun as it was about to close on March 12, 2001; they were sentenced to seven years in prison and served five and a half years. Watson Coleman has acknowledged it in the past and sponsored an Assembly bill that became law to prevent employers with more than 15 employees from asking job applicants if they have a criminal history. Watson Coleman argued for the law, saying, "One of the greatest barriers to a second chance in the state of New Jersey is a barrier to employment." In 2014, her son William Carter-Watson was hired by the Mercer County Park Commission as an entry-level laborer. When asked for comment, Brian Hughes, the County Executive, said, "the county has maintained a policy of hiring ex-convicts in search of a second chance".[52][53]
In the summer of 2018, Watson Coleman underwent surgery to remove a cancerous tumor.[54] Watson Coleman tested positive forCOVID-19 on January 11, 2021.[55] She underwent back surgery to treatlumbar spinal stenosis in June 2024.[56]
| Year | Democratic | Votes | Pct | Republican | Votes | Pct | 3rd Party | Party | Votes | Pct | 3rd Party | Party | Votes | Pct | Other |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | Bonnie Watson Coleman | 90,430 | 60.9% | Alieta Eck | 54,168 | 36.5% | Don Dezarn | Independent | 1,330 | 0.9% | Steven Welzer | Green | 890 | 0.6% | [a] |
| 2016 | 181,430 | 62.9% | Steven J. Uccio | 92,407 | 32.0% | R. Edward Forchion | Independent | 6,094 | 2.1% | Robert Shapiro | Independent | 2,775 | 1.0% | [b] | |
| 2018 | 173,334 | 68.7% | Daryl Kipnis | 79,041 | 31.3% | ||||||||||
| 2020 | 230,883 | 65.6% | Mark Razzoli | 114,591 | 32.6% | R. Edward Forchion | Independent | 4,512 | 1.3% | Ken Cody | Independent | 1,739 | 0.5% | ||
| 2022 | 125,127 | 63.1% | Darius Mayfield | 71,175 | 35.9% | Lynn Genrich | Libertarian | 1,925 | 1.0% | ||||||
| 2024 | 196,871 | 61.20% | 117,222 | 36.44% | Kim Meudt | Green | 4,652 | 1.45% | Vic Kaplan | Libertarian | 2,915 | 0.91% | |||
Notes
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| Preceded by | Chair of theNew Jersey Democratic Party 2002–2006 | Succeeded by |
| New Jersey General Assembly | ||
| Preceded by | Majority Leader of theNew Jersey General Assembly 2006–2010 | Succeeded by |
| U.S. House of Representatives | ||
| Preceded by | Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromNew Jersey's 12th congressional district 2015–present | Incumbent |
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| Preceded by | United States representatives by seniority 149th | Succeeded by |
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