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Donna Abene
Donna Abene (Democratic Party) is running for election to the New Jersey General Assembly to represent District 39. She is on the ballot in the general election on November 4, 2025. She advanced from the Democratic primary on June 10, 2025.
Abene completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2025. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Donna Abene was born in New Jersey. She earned a high school diploma from North Bergen High School. Abene also attended New York University and William Patterson University. Her career experience includes working as a councilwoman and accountant.[1]
She has been affiliated with the following organizations:[1]
- Bergen County Community Development
- Bergen New Bridge Medical Center
- Women Empowered Democratic Organization
- Run for Hope Foundation
- Commission on the Status of Women
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 39 (2 seats)
Incumbent Robert Auth, incumbent John Azzariti, Donna Abene, and Andrew LaBruno are running in the general election for New Jersey General Assembly District 39 on November 4, 2025.
Candidate | ||
 | Robert Auth (R) | |
 | John Azzariti (R) | |
 | Donna Abene (D)  | |
 | Andrew LaBruno (D) | |
| ||||
| = 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 New Jersey General Assembly District 39 (2 seats)
Andrew LaBruno and Donna Abene defeated David Jiang and Damon Englese in the Democratic primary for New Jersey General Assembly District 39 on June 10, 2025.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Andrew LaBruno | 28.5 | 9,137 |
| ✔ | | Donna Abene | 26.4 | 8,454 |
 | David Jiang | 26.0 | 8,317 | |
| Damon Englese | 19.2 | 6,137 | ||
| Total votes: 32,045 | |||
| = 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
- Jodi Murphy (D)
Republican primary election
Republican primary for New Jersey General Assembly District 39 (2 seats)
Incumbent John Azzariti and incumbent Robert Auth defeated Frank Pallotta in the Republican primary for New Jersey General Assembly District 39 on June 10, 2025.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | John Azzariti | 40.2 | 10,069 |
| ✔ | | Robert Auth | 37.5 | 9,398 |
 | Frank Pallotta | 22.3 | 5,588 | |
| Total votes: 25,055 | |||
| = 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
- DeAnne DeFuccio (R)
Endorsements
Abene received the following endorsements. To send us additional endorsements, click here.
2013
Abene ran in the 2013 election for New Jersey General Assembly District 39. Abene was unopposed in the June 4 Democratic primary. She was defeated by Robert Auth (R) and Holly Schepisi (R) in the general election, which took place on November 5, 2013.[2][3][4][5]
| New Jersey General Assembly, District 39 General Election, 2013 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Republican |  Holly Schepisi Incumbent |
32.4% | 36,873 | |
| Republican | Robert Auth |
29.6% | 33,680 | |
| Democratic | Donna C. Abene | 19.7% | 22,450 | |
| Democratic | Anthony N. Iannarelli, Jr. | 18.3% | 20,785 | |
| Total Votes | 113,788 | |||
Endorsements
In 2013, Abene’s endorsements included the following:[6] [7]
- The New Jersey AFL-CIO
- Planned Parenthood Action Fund of New Jersey
Campaign themes
2025
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Donna Abene completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2025. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Abene's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
| Collapse all
I have spent the last 25 years (in addition to working and raising my children) in service to community. I spent 11 years on my local BOE and three years as a council member. Currently, I am the chairperson of Bergen County Community Development and am a Trustee of Bergen New Bridge Medical Center's Foundation. I am a founding member of WEDO (Women Empowered Democratic Organization. I also serve on the Run For Hope Foundation. Building relationships has been my life's work. I strongly believe in the power of community to solve problems, from the simplest to the most complex & try to engage as many people from as many different arenas to work towards a common goal. I believe the majority of people want the same things: an affordable roof over their heads, opportunity to work, a sound education, and a clear, hopeful, and safe future for their children. I want those things for all of NJ & look forward to joining the State Assembly to help provide them to our citizens. I will also be at the front lines to fight for Women's Rights, the protection of the LGBTQ+ Community, and the disastrous climate change issue that threatens us all.
Thank you for this opportunity to tell you a bit about myself. Please text me at 201-925-8696 so I can find out what is important to you~- I'm listening. The main objective of public service is to listen to the public! I look forward to hearing what is important to you and your family. What changes or enhancements you would like to see in NJ laws and how your lives can be improved. Everything starts with open dialog and I intend to be "all ears" and not hide myself away in Trenton.
- As I am out listening to my neighbors here in District 39 one thing is clear--they are ready for change in their district leaders. The ring-kissing by our current assemblymen is infuriating their constitutes as time-after-time they support the lunatic policies of the far right, There are too many to list here, but for instance, I spent two evenings last week protesting ICE taking adults and CHILDREN out of schools, churches, and places of employment. THIS IS NOT AMERICA. THIS IS NOT NEW JERSEY.
- I am not afraid to say or do what needs to be done to protect my constituents. I am not afraid to take an unpopular stance if it is morally correct. We do not need to wait until the midterms to vote our minds and hearts. New Jersey has a governor's race and all 80 Assembly seats are on the ballot. We need to be heard now!
- NJ has some of the best schools in the nation. We must continue to support our PUBLIC schools & those who work to educate our children.There is a national movement to provide vouchers to religious & private schools. This is absurd & will decrease funding to our already outstanding school systems.
- Preserving Human rights that are being stripped from us almost daily. We must fortify all our laws to guard against our rouge federal government. We must elect policy makers who are not afraid to speak out or vote against the current president & his cohorts
This story is the essence of who they were, and ultimately who I am. My parents did not have a lot, but they worked hard and provided for their three children. My father was a bartender and for a short time he owned his own local establishment. We lived up the block. Back in those days, bars were closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter. But, my father would go down and open up in the afternoon for a few hours--not to make money, but to find out who came in. His theory being, if you came into his bar on a holiday you had nowhere else to go. He'd collect his patrons, and call my mother and say: "Put four (or five, or three) more plates on, Claire, we have some more guests for dinner." And he would bring them home, and we would welcome them to our table along with Aunts and Uncles and cousins, and friends. To be born of, and raised by such extraordinary people was life's greatest gift to me. It taught me gratitude for what I had (no matter how little). It taught me compassion for ALL human beings. It taught me that I can make a difference in someone's life. These are the tenets that I live by. I lost my father when I was 16 and my mother when I was 31, but I make still sure I always invite someone to my house on holidays that might have nowhere else to go....
AFT (American Federation of Teachers)
WEDO (Women Empowered Democratic Organization
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.
2013
On her LinkedIn page, Abene said on running for the Assembly that, "It is time to clean up the 39th and promote it for the outstanding place to live and work that it is. We must foster fiscal responsibility, great schools, support social programs that make sense, and take significant steps to reduce violence of all kinds. When elected, being a Member of the Assembly will be my job—not my hobby.”[8]
See also
2025 Elections
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on July 5, 2025
- ↑ New Jersey Department of Elections, "Official Primary Election Results," accessed July 26, 2013
- ↑ New Jersey Department of State, "Official 2013 General Assembly general election candidates," accessed April 10, 2014
- ↑ Associated Press, "New Jersey - Summary Vote Results," November 6, 2013
- ↑ New Jersey Department of State, "2013 Official General Election results," accessed December 9, 2013
- ↑ PolitickerNJ.com, "AFL-CIO endorses candidates for elections," accessed September 4, 2013
- ↑ Planned Parenthood NJ "Planned Parenthood Action Fund of New Jersey Announces Endorsements in State Elections," accessed September 5, 2013
- ↑ Abene's LinkedIn profile, accessed September 16,2013
