Cory Booker Wins Third Full Term in New Jersey Senate Race, Beating Justin Murphy

Sen. Cory Booker won reelection in New Jersey on Tuesday, November 3, 2026, securing a third full term in the U.S. Senate. The Associated Press called the race for Booker at 8:01 p.m. ET, just minutes after polls closed across the state. NBC News and CNN called the race at about the same time. Booker defeated Republican Justin Murphy, and he keeps a seat he has held since 2013.

The count at the call

The AP results feed marked the New Jersey Senate race Called for Booker with 1,212,310 votes, with 60.25 percent of precincts reporting, 3,921 of 6,508. NorthJersey.com reported that NBC News and CNN called the race shortly after polls closed and before official results had been reported. Booker also defeated independent Veronica Fernandez and Socialist Workers Party candidate Joanne Kuniansky, according to the Associated Press reporting carried by FOX 29.

The opponent and the field

Murphy is an attorney and a former Tabernacle Township committeeman. The result was called so early that the count was still far from complete. That speed fits the history of the seat. NorthJersey.com reported that no Republican has represented New Jersey in the U.S. Senate since the 1970s. Booker, 57, is a former mayor of Newark and is New Jersey's senior senator.

How Booker got to a third full term

Booker first went to the Senate after winning a 2013 special election that followed the death of Sen. Frank Lautenberg. He then won full six year terms in 2014 and 2020. Tuesday's win gives him a third full term on top of that first partial term. In his own words, in a social media post quoted by NorthJersey.com, Booker said: "I'm running for reelection in New Jersey. This has been the greatest privilege of my life. I'm not taking anything for granted".

The record he ran on

FOX 29 reported that Booker campaigned on the cost of living, with a proposal called the Keep Your Pay Act. The proposal would eliminate federal income taxes on the first 75,000 dollars of household income for most filers and expand the child tax credit. FOX 29 also reported that, during his tenure, Booker sponsored the First Step Act and helped secure 6.8 billion dollars in federal funding for the Hudson Tunnel Project. Those two items, a criminal justice law and a major rail tunnel under the Hudson River, were central parts of the record he carried into the race, and voters in New Jersey returned him to Washington for six more years.