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Cleopatra Tucker

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Cleopatra Tucker
Image of Cleopatra Tucker

Candidate, New Jersey General Assembly District 28

New Jersey General Assembly District 28
Tenure

2008 - Present

Term ends

2026

Years in position

17

Compensation

Base salary

$49,000/year

Per diem

$No per diem is paid

Elections and appointments
Last elected

November 7, 2023

Next election

November 4, 2025

Education

Bachelor's

Tennessee State University

Personal
Profession
Executive Director, The Centre Inc.
Contact

Cleopatra Tucker (Democratic Party) is a member of the New Jersey General Assembly, representing District 28. She assumed office in 2008. Her current term ends on January 13, 2026.

Tucker (Democratic Party) is running for re-election to the New Jersey General Assembly to represent District 28. She is on the ballot in the general election on November 4, 2025. She advanced from the Democratic primary on June 10, 2025.

Biography

Tucker earned her B.A. in sociology from Miles College at Tennessee State University. Her professional experience includes working as executive director for the nonprofit, The Centre Incorporated.[1]

Committee assignments

Note: This membership information was last updated in September 2023. Ballotpedia completes biannual updates of committee membership. If you would like to send us an update, email us at: editor@ballotpedia.org.

2023-2024

Tucker was assigned to the following committees:

2020-2021

Tucker was assigned to the following committees:

2019-2020

Tucker was assigned to the following committees:

2016 legislative session

At the beginning of the 2016 legislative session, Tucker served on the following committees:

New Jersey committee assignments, 2016
Military and Veterans' Affairs, Chair
• Human Services, Vice-Chair
Regulatory Oversight and Reform and Federal Relations

2015 legislative session

In the 2015 legislative session, Tucker served on the following committees:

2014 legislative session

In the 2014 legislative session, Tucker served on the following committees:

2010-2012

In the 2010-2012 legislative session, Tucker served on the following committees:

The following table lists bills this person sponsored as a legislator, according to BillTrack50 and sorted by action history. Bills are sorted by the date of their last action. The following list may not be comprehensive. To see all bills this legislator sponsored, click on the legislator's name in the title of the table.


Elections

2025

See also: New Jersey General Assembly elections, 2025

General election

General election for New Jersey General Assembly District 28 (2 seats)

Incumbent Cleopatra Tucker and Chigozie U. Onyema are running in the general election for New Jersey General Assembly District 28 on November 4, 2025.


Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for New Jersey General Assembly District 28 (2 seats)

Incumbent Cleopatra Tucker and Chigozie U. Onyema defeated incumbent Garnet Hall in the Democratic primary for New Jersey General Assembly District 28 on June 10, 2025.

Candidate
%
Votes
Image of Cleopatra Tucker
Cleopatra Tucker
 
38.7
 
14,108
Chigozie U. Onyema
 
36.9
 
13,456
Garnet Hall
 
24.5
 
8,932

Total votes: 36,496
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

Republican primary election

No Republican candidates ran in the primary.

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

Endorsements

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

2023

See also: New Jersey General Assembly elections, 2023

General election

General election for New Jersey General Assembly District 28 (2 seats)

Incumbent Cleopatra Tucker and Garnet Hall defeated Joy Bembry-Freeman and Willie Jetti in the general election for New Jersey General Assembly District 28 on November 7, 2023.

Candidate
%
Votes
Image of Cleopatra Tucker
Cleopatra Tucker (D)
 
46.3
 
19,094
Garnet Hall (D)
 
45.2
 
18,637
Joy Bembry-Freeman (R)
 
4.6
 
1,902
Willie Jetti (R)
 
3.9
 
1,600

Total votes: 41,233
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for New Jersey General Assembly District 28 (2 seats)

Garnet Hall and incumbent Cleopatra Tucker defeated Frank McGehee in the Democratic primary for New Jersey General Assembly District 28 on June 6, 2023.

Candidate
%
Votes
Garnet Hall
 
41.0
 
8,520
Image of Cleopatra Tucker
Cleopatra Tucker
 
39.6
 
8,237
Image of Frank McGehee
Frank McGehee
 
19.4
 
4,025

Total votes: 20,782
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Republican primary election

Republican primary for New Jersey General Assembly District 28 (2 seats)

Joy Bembry-Freeman and Willie Jetti advanced from the Republican primary for New Jersey General Assembly District 28 on June 6, 2023.

Candidate
%
Votes
Joy Bembry-Freeman
 
53.0
 
274
Willie Jetti
 
47.0
 
243

Total votes: 517
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Endorsements

Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Tucker in this election.

2021

See also: New Jersey General Assembly elections, 2021

General election

General election for New Jersey General Assembly District 28 (2 seats)

Incumbent Ralph Caputo and incumbent Cleopatra Tucker defeated Monique Headen and Anthony D'Angelo in the general election for New Jersey General Assembly District 28 on November 2, 2021.

Candidate
%
Votes
Image of Ralph Caputo
Ralph Caputo (D)
 
39.2
 
32,797
Image of Cleopatra Tucker
Cleopatra Tucker (D)
 
39.1
 
32,719
Monique Headen (R)
 
10.8
 
9,063
Anthony D'Angelo (R)
 
10.8
 
9,005

Total votes: 83,584
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for New Jersey General Assembly District 28 (2 seats)

Incumbent Cleopatra Tucker and incumbent Ralph Caputo advanced from the Democratic primary for New Jersey General Assembly District 28 on June 8, 2021.

Candidate
%
Votes
Image of Cleopatra Tucker
Cleopatra Tucker
 
51.0
 
8,840
Image of Ralph Caputo
Ralph Caputo
 
49.0
 
8,490

Total votes: 17,330
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Republican primary election

Republican primary for New Jersey General Assembly District 28 (2 seats)

Anthony D'Angelo and Monique Headen advanced from the Republican primary for New Jersey General Assembly District 28 on June 8, 2021.

Candidate
%
Votes
Anthony D'Angelo
 
51.2
 
1,386
Monique Headen
 
48.8
 
1,320

Total votes: 2,706
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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2019

See also: New Jersey General Assembly elections, 2019

General election

General election for New Jersey General Assembly District 28 (2 seats)

Incumbent Ralph Caputo and incumbent Cleopatra Tucker defeated Joy Bembry-Freeman, Antonio Pires, and Derrick Ross in the general election for New Jersey General Assembly District 28 on November 5, 2019.

Candidate
%
Votes
Image of Ralph Caputo
Ralph Caputo (D)
 
41.4
 
16,234
Image of Cleopatra Tucker
Cleopatra Tucker (D)
 
40.8
 
15,998
Joy Bembry-Freeman (R)
 
8.4
 
3,282
Antonio Pires (R)
 
7.7
 
3,025
Derrick Ross (Independent)
 
1.6
 
627

Total votes: 39,166
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for New Jersey General Assembly District 28 (2 seats)

Incumbent Cleopatra Tucker and incumbent Ralph Caputo defeated Stephen Burd in the Democratic primary for New Jersey General Assembly District 28 on June 4, 2019.

Candidate
%
Votes
Image of Cleopatra Tucker
Cleopatra Tucker
 
48.0
 
4,553
Image of Ralph Caputo
Ralph Caputo
 
45.5
 
4,319
Image of Stephen Burd
Stephen Burd Candidate Connection
 
6.6
 
622

Total votes: 9,494
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Republican primary election

Republican primary for New Jersey General Assembly District 28 (2 seats)

Joy Bembry-Freeman and Antonio Pires advanced from the Republican primary for New Jersey General Assembly District 28 on June 4, 2019.

Candidate
%
Votes
Joy Bembry-Freeman
 
51.8
 
515
Antonio Pires
 
48.2
 
479

Total votes: 994
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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2017

See also: New Jersey General Assembly elections, 2017

General election

Elections for the New Jersey General Assembly took place in 2017. All 80 seats were up for election. State assembly members are elected to two-year terms. The general election took place on November 7, 2017. A primary election took place on June 6, 2017. The filing deadline for the primary election was April 3, 2017.[2] Legislative districts in the New Jersey General Assembly are multi-member districts, with two representatives in each district. In Democratic and Republican primary elections, the top two candidates move forward to the general election, and the top two candidates in the general election are declared the winners.[3] The following candidates ran in the New Jersey General Assembly District 28 general election.[4][5]

New Jersey General Assembly, District 28 General Election, 2017
Party Candidate Vote % Votes
     Democratic Green check mark transparent.png Ralph Caputo Incumbent 42.70% 30,084
     Democratic Green check mark transparent.png Cleopatra Tucker Incumbent 42.08% 29,643
     Republican Veronica Branch 6.87% 4,839
     Republican James Boydston 6.63% 4,672
     Time for change Joanne Miller 1.11% 782
     A New Hope Scott Thomas Nicastro Jr. 0.61% 430
Total Votes 70,450
Source: New Jersey Department of State

Democratic primary election

Incumbent Cleopatra Tucker and incumbent Ralph Caputo were unopposed in the New Jersey General Assembly District 28 Democratic primary election.[6][7]

New Jersey General Assembly, District 28 Democratic Primary, 2017
Candidate Vote % Votes
Green check mark transparent.png Cleopatra Tucker Incumbent 51.84% 11,229
Green check mark transparent.png Ralph Caputo Incumbent 48.16% 10,433
Total Votes 21,662
Source: New Jersey Department of State

Republican primary election

James Boydston and Veronica Branch were unopposed in the New Jersey General Assembly District 28 Republican primary election.[8][7]

New Jersey General Assembly, District 28 Republican Primary, 2017
Candidate Vote % Votes
Green check mark transparent.png James Boydston 50.14% 865
Green check mark transparent.png Veronica Branch 49.86% 860
Total Votes 1,725
Source: New Jersey Department of State

2015

See also: New Jersey General Assembly elections, 2015

Elections for the New Jersey General Assembly took place in 2015. A primary election was held on June 2, 2015. The general election took place on November 3, 2015. The signature filing deadline for candidates wishing to run in this election was March 30, 2015.[9] Since the general assembly uses multi-member districts, the top two candidates from each party in the primaries advanced to the general election. Incumbent Ralph Caputo and incumbent Cleopatra Tucker were bracketed together and were unopposed in the Democratic primary. Darnel Henry and David Pinckney were bracketed together and were unopposed in the Republican primary. Caputo and Tucker defeated Henry and Pinckney in the general election.[10][11][12][13][14]

New Jersey General Assembly, District 28 General Election, 2015
Party Candidate Vote % Votes
     Democratic Green check mark transparent.pngRalph Caputo Incumbent 43.2% 9,512
     Democratic Green check mark transparent.pngCleopatra Tucker Incumbent 41.7% 9,186
     Republican David Pinckney 7.5% 1,661
     Republican Darnel Henry 7.5% 1,646
Total Votes 22,005

2013

See also: New Jersey General Assembly elections, 2013

Tucker won re-election in the 2013 election for New Jersey General Assembly District 28. Tucker was bracketed with Ralph Caputo. She was unopposed in the June 4 Democratic primary. She and incumbent Ralph Caputo (D) defeated James Boydston (R) and Peter S. Manning (R) in the general election, which took place on November 5, 2013.[15][16][17][18]

New Jersey General Assembly, District 28 General Election, 2013
Party Candidate Vote % Votes
     Democratic Green check mark transparent.pngRalph Caputo Incumbent 38.9% 26,221
     Democratic Green check mark transparent.pngCleopatra G. Tucker Incumbent 38.4% 25,869
     Republican Peter S. Manning 11.7% 7,875
     Republican James Boydston 11.1% 7,452
Total Votes 67,417

2011

See also: New Jersey General Assembly elections, 2011

Tucker won re-election in 2011. She and incumbent Ralph Caputo were bracketed together and defeated Michael Frazzano in the Democratic primary on June 7. They then defeated Carol Humphreys (R) and David Pinckney (R) in the November 8 general election.[19]

New Jersey General Assembly District 28 General Election, 2011
Party Candidate Vote % Votes
     Democratic Green check mark transparent.pngCleopatra Tucker Incumbent 38.2% 14,002
     Democratic Green check mark transparent.pngRalph Caputo Incumbent 37.6% 13,786
     Republican Carol Humphreys 12.6% 4,607
     Republican David Pinckney 11.6% 4,258
Total Votes 36,653

2009

See also: New Jersey General Assembly elections, 2009

Running for re-election in the November 3, 2009, general election, Tucker received 25,516 votes (40%), defeating Republican challengers Herbert Glenn and Andrew Bloschak.[20] She was bracketed with Ralph Caputo (D).[21]

New Jersey Assembly General Election, Twenty-Eighth Legislative District (2009)
Candidates Votes
Green check mark transparent.png Cleopatra G. Tucker (D) 25,975
Green check mark transparent.png Ralph R. Caputo (D) 25,172
Herbert Glenn (R) 6,477
Andrew Bloschak (R) 6,053

Campaign themes

2025

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Candidate Connection

Cleopatra Tucker has not yet completed Ballotpedia's 2025 Candidate Connection survey. If you are Cleopatra Tucker, click here to fill out Ballotpedia's 2025 Candidate Connection survey.

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2023

Cleopatra Tucker did not complete Ballotpedia's 2023 Candidate Connection survey.

2021

Cleopatra Tucker did not complete Ballotpedia's 2021 Candidate Connection survey.

2019

Cleopatra Tucker did not complete Ballotpedia's 2019 Candidate Connection survey.

Campaign finance summary


Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.


Cleopatra Tucker campaign contribution history
YearOfficeStatusContributionsExpenditures
2023New Jersey General Assembly District 28Won general$31,231 $0
2021New Jersey General Assembly District 28Won general$1,000 $0
2013New Jersey General Assembly, District 28Won $27,815 N/A**
2011New Jersey General Assembly, District 28Won $43,421 N/A**
2009New Jersey General Assembly, District 28Won $61,874 N/A**
2007New Jersey General Assembly, District 28Won $57,748 N/A**
** Data on expenditures is not available for this election cycle
Note: Totals above reflect only available data.

Scorecards

See also: State legislative scorecards and State legislative scorecards in New Jersey

A scorecard evaluates a legislator’s voting record. Its purpose is to inform voters about the legislator’s political positions. Because scorecards have varying purposes and methodologies, each report should be considered on its own merits. For example, an advocacy group’s scorecard may assess a legislator’s voting record on one issue while a state newspaper’s scorecard may evaluate the voting record in its entirety.

Ballotpedia is in the process of developing an encyclopedic list of published scorecards. Some states have a limited number of available scorecards or scorecards produced only by select groups. It is Ballotpedia’s goal to incorporate all available scorecards regardless of ideology or number.

Click here for an overview of legislative scorecards in all 50 states.  To contribute to the list of New Jersey scorecards, email suggestions to editor@ballotpedia.org.


2024


2023


2022


2021


2020


2019


2018


2017


2016


2015


2014


2013


2012

Endorsements

2013

In 2013, Tucker’s endorsements included the following:[22] [23]

  • The New Jersey AFL-CIO
  • Planned Parenthood Action Fund of New Jersey

2011

In 2011, Tucker’s endorsements included the following:[24]

Personal

Note: Please contact us if the personal information below requires an update.
Tucker and her late husband, Donald, have two children.

See also


External links

Footnotes

  1. Project Vote Smart, "Biography," accessed April 10, 2014
  2. New Jersey Secretary of State, "2017 Primary Election Timeline," accessed March 21, 2017
  3. New Jersey Division of Elections, "Official List, Candidates for General Assembly for Primary Election, June 6, 2017," accessed April 13, 2017
  4. New Jersey Department of State, "Candidates for General Assembly for General Election 11/07/2017 Election," accessed September 14, 2017
  5. New Jersey Department of State, "2017 official general election results," accessed November 30, 2017
  6. New Jersey Division of Elections, "Official Candidate List," April 6, 2017
  7. 7.0 7.1 New Jersey Division of Elections, “2017 official primary election results for general assembly,” accessed July 13, 2017
  8. New Jersey Division of Elections, "Official Candidate List," April 6, 2017
  9. New Jersey Department of Elections, "2015 Primary Election Timeline," accessed February 2, 2015
  10. New Jersey Department of State, "Official candidate list for June 2 primary," accessed May 22, 2015
  11. New Jersey Department of State, "Unofficial primary election results," accessed June 3, 2015
  12. New Jersey Department of State, "Official list for candidate for General Assembly," accessed August 10, 2015
  13. New Jersey Department of State, "Official primary results for General Assembly," accessed August 10, 2015
  14. New Jersey Department of State, "Official general election results for General Assembly," accessed December 7, 2015
  15. New Jersey Department of Elections, "Official Primary Election Results," accessed July 26, 2013
  16. New Jersey Department of State, "Official 2013 General Assembly general election candidates," accessed April 10, 2014
  17. Associated Press, "New Jersey - Summary Vote Results," November 6, 2013
  18. New Jersey Department of State, "2013 Official General Election results," accessed December 9, 2013
  19. New Jersey Department of State, "2011 Official General Assembly Primary Candidate List," accessed April 10, 2014
  20. Associated Press, "General Election Results, November 4, 2009," accessed April 10, 2014
  21. New Jersey Department of State, "Official 2009 New Jersey Assembly General Election Results," accessed April 10, 2014
  22. PolitickerNJ.com, "AFL-CIO endorses candidates for elections," accessed September 4, 2013
  23. Planned Parenthood NJ "Planned Parenthood Action Fund of New Jersey Announces Endorsements in State Elections," accessed September 5, 2013
  24. Politicker NJ, "2011 AFL-CIO endorsed candidates," accessed August 5, 2011


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