Blake Michael

This page was current at the end of the individual's last campaign covered by Ballotpedia. Please contact us with any updates.

Blake Michael

Democratic Party

Elections and appointments

Last election

June 10, 2025

Education

Bachelor's

Cornell University, 2016

Other

University of Oklahoma

Personal

Birthplace

Anderson, Ind.

Religion

Roman Catholic

Profession

Teacher

Contact

Campaign website

Campaign Facebook

Personal Facebook

Blake Michael (Democratic Party) ran for election to the New Jersey General Assembly to represent District 27. He lost in the Democratic primary on June 10, 2025.

Biography

Michael was born in Anderson, Indiana. He earned his bachelor's degree from Cornell University in 2016 and his MPA from the University of Oklahoma. As of his 2020 campaign, he was a part-time law student at the Fordham University School of Law. His career experience includes working as a middle school and high school teacher.

Elections

2025

See also: New Jersey General Assembly elections, 2025

General election

The candidate list in this election may not be complete.

General election for New Jersey General Assembly District 27 (2 seats)

Incumbent Rosy Bagolie, incumbent Alixon Collazos-Gill, Robert Iommazzo, and Adam Kraemer are running in the general election for New Jersey General Assembly District 27 on November 4, 2025.

		Candidate
		Rosy Bagolie (D)
		Alixon Collazos-Gill (D)
	Submit photo	Robert Iommazzo (R)
		Adam Kraemer (R)

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined.
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for New Jersey General Assembly District 27 (2 seats)

Incumbent Alixon Collazos-Gill and incumbent Rosy Bagolie defeated Rohit Dave and Blake Michael in the Democratic primary for New Jersey General Assembly District 27 on June 10, 2025.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Alixon Collazos-Gill	33.6	15,803
✔		Rosy Bagolie	32.2	15,181
		Rohit Dave	17.2	8,089
		Blake Michael	17.0	8,028

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 47,101
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
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Republican primary election

Republican primary for New Jersey General Assembly District 27 (2 seats)

Robert Iommazzo and Adam Kraemer advanced from the Republican primary for New Jersey General Assembly District 27 on June 10, 2025.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Submit photo	Robert Iommazzo	50.2	4,289
✔		Adam Kraemer	49.8	4,258

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 8,547
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
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Endorsements

Michael received the following endorsements. To send us additional endorsements, click here.

• Service Employees International Union (SEIU) New Jersey State Council

2020

See also: New Jersey's 9th Congressional District election, 2020

New Jersey's 9th Congressional District election, 2020 (July 7 Democratic primary)

New Jersey's 9th Congressional District election, 2020 (July 7 Republican primary)

General election

General election for U.S. House New Jersey District 9

Incumbent Bill Pascrell defeated Billy Prempeh and Chris Auriemma in the general election for U.S. House New Jersey District 9 on November 3, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Bill Pascrell (D)	65.8	203,674
		Billy Prempeh (R)	31.9	98,629
		Chris Auriemma (Veteran For Change Party)	2.3	7,239

---

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 309,542
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for U.S. House New Jersey District 9

Incumbent Bill Pascrell defeated Zinovia Spezakis and Alp Basaran in the Democratic primary for U.S. House New Jersey District 9 on July 7, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Bill Pascrell	80.6	52,422
		Zinovia Spezakis	16.9	10,998
		Alp Basaran	2.4	1,592

---

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 65,012
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

• Blake Michael (D)
• Michael Wildes (D)

Republican primary election

Republican primary for U.S. House New Jersey District 9

Billy Prempeh defeated Timothy Walsh (Unofficially withdrew) in the Republican primary for U.S. House New Jersey District 9 on July 7, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Billy Prempeh	74.2	10,055
	Submit photo	Timothy Walsh (Unofficially withdrew)	25.8	3,500

---

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 13,555
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Campaign themes

2025

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Blake Michael did not complete Ballotpedia's 2025 Candidate Connection survey.

2019

Blake Michael completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2019. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Michael's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

Expand all | Collapse all

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

I'm an educator currently in my fourth year of teaching. I received my BA from Cornell University in Government and the College Scholar Program, the latter being an independent major which culminated in a senior project. My program was designed around immigration policy and my senior project investigated media bias in covering refugee migration.

I spent three years teaching in Oklahoma where I earned my MPA from the University of Oklahoma in Tulsa. During this time, I met my husband and married in Oklahoma City. We relocated after my husband got a middle school teaching job in Newark. I'm currently a part-time law student at Fordham University.

I come from a working class family and attended public school. My mother lost her home in the Great Recession and my father was forced to declare bankruptcy at a young age as he struggled to manage bills and student loans. Many members of my family have spent long periods of time uninsured and unable to pay for much-needed medical bills.

Having always taught populations comprised primarily of students who are immigrants or from immigrant families, I have witnessed firsthand the pain that recent immigration policies have caused.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

• Comprehensive Immigration Reform: Expanding the number and type of family members who can be sponsored by a U.S. citizen, a path to citizenship for DACA and TPS holders, and an abolition of quotas.
• Equitable Education Reform: Universal Pre-K, free school breakfast and lunch, mandating that all schools receiving federal funds reduce class sizes to fewer than 27, and doubling the amount of funding available through Title I.
• Healthcare for All: Expanding Medicare to include comprehensive mental/dental/vision benefits, requiring a public option as a minimum, funding federal production of generic drugs, and working to ensure universal coverage.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

I am passionate about removing the systemic barriers to progress that hold so many families back. From school funding to regional quotas, our national systems are designed to hold working people and people of color down. This is morally unacceptable and we all have a responsibility to fight for that which our communities deserve. As the youngest (or among the youngest) congressional candidates in the country, I feel a responsibility to test marketing and voter outreach strategies which will allow members of my generation to enter into politics at a younger age so that we are able to participate in solving the problems that our generation will inherit.

What characteristics or principles are most important for an elected official?

Any elected official must be willing not only to listen to others, but elevate them. So many politicians are so concerned about losing election that they are unwilling to pass the microphone, allowing others to advocate for themselves using the authority of the office. I am committed in my campaign to incorporate issues brought to me from community members (such as arguing for employment protections for natural hair and cultural hair styles) while simultaneously elevating voices from the community to bring attention to the issues that matter most.

What legacy would you like to leave?

I would like to leave a legacy of respect for working people and an understanding that voters are worth more than their money. Candidates have a responsibility to fight for their district, raising people up with wages and the community up with donations. All of our interns are paid $15 an hour. 100% of the money left over when our campaign concludes- winning or losing- will be donated to charities within the community.

What was your very first job? How long did you have it?

I am proud to come from a working class background. Although my first part-time job was detasseling corn, my first regular job was at McDonald's. In my region, jobs were extremely hard to come by. When my grandmother's factory closed, it took her a year to find a job making a fraction of her previous salary. As a single mother in her late fifties, she was forced to clean houses on her way home from work each night in order to keep from losing her house. When I was offered a job at a local McDonalds (approximately 30 minutes away), I felt lucky.

Working people do what we need to do in order to provide. I worked 20 hours a week during high school and was full time during the summer. After two years of working, my salary only increased twenty-five cents. I have tremendous respect for people who are working in service jobs, and I will fight for them to receive the wages that they deserve.

What qualities does the U.S. House of Representatives possess that makes it unique as an institution?

The House of Representatives is a beautiful institution because it is so diverse. Given how small each district is, it's possible for a wide range of representatives to be elected in order to lend a voice to every generation, religion, etc. I believe that we have a responsibility to ensure that our national diversity is represented within the House.

What do you perceive to be the United States’ greatest challenges as a nation over the next decade?

We are a nation grappling with extreme inequality. As our richest grow richer and our poorest grow poorer, our social fabric is beginning to wear thin and threatens to spill out into more mainstream forms of ideological extremism. Nativism, racism, xenophobia, gun violence: These are all symptoms of a larger distrust that is being spread by hateful and self-serving politicians. My generation is losing faith in democracy: It is our responsibility to restore it.

What are your thoughts on term limits?

Were each election truly a referendum on a district's priorities in a candidate, I would disagree with term limits; however, given how congressmen today are able to build a war chest that enables them to win re-election without expending the same amount of effort a challenger must invest, I strongly believe in term limits. If I am elected, I will not serve more than 12 years (equal to two senate terms) in order to set a precedent for the district.

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

Campaign finance summary

Campaign finance information for this candidate is not yet available from OpenSecrets. That information will be published here once it is available.

See also

2025 Elections

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Government

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Candidate

New Jersey General Assembly District 27

Website

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Personal

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Footnotes

[show]

Current members of the New Jersey General Assembly

Leadership

Representatives

District 1

Antwan McClellan (R)

Erik Simonsen (R)

District 2

Don Guardian (R)

Claire Swift (R)

District 3

Dave Bailey (D)

Heather Simmons (D)

District 4

Dan Hutchison (D)

Cody Miller (D)

District 5

William Moen (D)

William Spearman (D)

District 6

Louis Greenwald (D)

Melinda Kane (D)

District 7

Carol Murphy (D)

Balvir Singh (D)

District 8

Andrea Katz (D)

Michael Torrissi (R)

District 9

Gregory Myhre (R)

Brian Rumpf (R)

District 10

Paul Kanitra (R)

Gregory McGuckin (R)

District 11

Margie Donlon (D)

Luanne Peterpaul (D)

District 12

Robert Clifton (R)

Alex Sauickie (R)

District 13

Victoria Flynn (R)

Gerard Scharfenberger (R)

District 14

Wayne DeAngelo (D)

Tennille McCoy (D)

District 15

Verlina Reynolds-Jackson (D)

Anthony Verrelli (D)

District 16

Mitchelle Drulis (D)

Roy Freiman (D)

District 17

Joseph Danielsen (D)

Kevin Egan (D)

District 18

Robert Karabinchak (D)

Sterley Stanley (D)

District 19

Craig Coughlin (D)

Yvonne Lopez (D)

District 20

Reginald Atkins (D)

Annette Quijano (D)

District 21

Michele Matsikoudis (R)

Nancy Muñoz (R)

District 22

Linda Carter (D)

James Kennedy (D)

District 23

John DiMaio (R)

Erik Peterson (R)

District 24

Dawn Fantasia (R)

Michael Inganamort (R)

District 25

Christian Barranco (R)

Aura Dunn (R)

District 26

Brian Bergen (R)

Jay Webber (R)

District 27

Rosy Bagolie (D)

Alixon Collazos-Gill (D)

District 28

Garnet Hall (D)

Cleopatra Tucker (D)

District 29

Eliana Marin (D)

Shanique Speight (D)

District 30

Sean Kean (R)

Avi Schnall (D)

District 31

William Sampson (D)

Barbara Stamato (D)

District 32

John Allen (D)

Jessica Ramirez (D)

District 33

Julio Marenco (D)

Gabriel Rodriguez (D)

District 34

Carmen Morales (D)

Michael Venezia (D)

District 35

Alaa Abdelaziz (D)

Shavonda Sumter (D)

District 36

Clinton Calabrese (D)

Gary Schaer (D)

District 37

Shama Haider (D)

Ellen Park (D)

District 38

Lisa Swain (D)

Chris Tully (D)

District 39

Robert Auth (R)

John Azzariti (R)

District 40

Al Barlas (R)

Christopher DePhillips (R)

Democratic Party (52)

Republican Party (28)