Jamel Curtis Holley (born September 13, 1979) is an American
Democratic Party politician from the state of
New Jersey
New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...
, who served in the
New Jersey General Assembly
The New Jersey General Assembly is the lower house of the New Jersey Legislature.
Since the election of 1967 (1968 session), the Assembly has consisted of 80 members. Two members are elected from each of New Jersey's 40 legislative districts f ...
representing the
20th Legislative District from 2015 to 2022. He is the first
African American
African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...
to represent the district, serving out the unexpired term of former Assemblyman and now State Senator
Joseph Cryan, and formerly served as councilman and then mayor of
Roselle, New Jersey
Roselle ( ) is a borough located in Union County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population was 22,695, an increase of 1,610 (+7.6%) from the 2010 census count of 21,085, which in turn ref ...
; at age 32, he was the
borough
A borough is an administrative division in various English language, English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely.
History
...
's youngest-ever mayor.
In 2021, Holley unsuccessfully challenged Cryan in the June 2021 New Jersey State Senate primary, losing by 29 points. Two years later, Holley attempted a comeback and unsuccessfully challenged incumbent Mayor Donald Shaw in the Roselle Mayoral Democratic primary and lost by 2 points.
Early life
Holley graduated from
Abraham Clark High School in Roselle in 1997, received a
Bachelor of Science
A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years.
The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...
in
Criminal Justice
Criminal justice is the delivery of justice to those who have been accused of committing crimes. The criminal justice system is a series of government agencies and institutions. Goals include the rehabilitation of offenders, preventing other ...
from
New Jersey City University
New Jersey City University (NJCU) is a public university in Jersey City, New Jersey. Originally chartered in 1927, NJCU consists of the School of Business, College of Arts and Sciences, College of Education, and College of Professional Studies a ...
in 2002, and earned a
Master of Public Administration
A Master of Public Administration (MPA) is a specialized professional graduate degree in public administration that prepares students for leadership roles, similar or equivalent to a Master of Business Administration but with an emphasis on the ...
from
Kean University
Kean University () is a public university in Union Township, Union County, New Jersey, Union, Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth, and Hillside, New Jersey. It is part of New Jersey's public system of higher education and is a state-designated rese ...
in 2006.
In 2001, he was appointed as Chief of Staff to Neil M. Cohen of
New Jersey's 20th Legislative District,
the youngest Chief of Staff for any of New Jersey's 120 legislators.
He works for
Irvington as the Director of Public Works under Mayor Tony Vauss.
Political career
On November 2, 2004, Holley won the General Election for Councilman at Large in the Borough of Roselle, becoming Union County's youngest Councilman at age 25. Commissioned by the
New Jersey Democratic State Committee to serve as a committee member at the
2004 Democratic National Convention
The 2004 Democratic National Convention convened from July 26 to 29, 2004 at the FleetCenter (now the TD Garden) in Boston, Massachusetts, and nominated Senator John Kerry from Massachusetts for president and Senator John Edwards from North ...
, he won re-election to his at-large seat following year.
He made history by officiating the first gay wedding in New Jersey "forever cementing himself into the annals of queer liberation."
Elections
Mayor of Roselle
Holley was elected Mayor of the Borough of Roselle in November 2011, becoming Roselle's youngest mayor in its 117-year history.
He ran unopposed for mayor after defeating two-term Mayor Garrett Smith in the Borough's Democratic primaries in June,
despite Smith having the support of U.S. Congressman
Donald M. Payne of
New Jersey's 10th District.
Holley's running mates were then-Councilman-elect Randy Sandifer and then-Councilman Yves. F. Aubourg,
Mayor Holley began his term on January 1, 2012 and was officially inaugurated on January 6, at age 32.
He joined nearly 50 other Union County Democrats to endorse
Newark Mayor
Cory Booker
Cory Anthony Booker (born April 27, 1969) is an American politician serving as the Seniority in the United States Senate, senior United States Senate, United States senator from New Jersey, a seat he has held since 2013. A member of the Democ ...
for
his bid for the U.S. Senate in 2013, and supported
Raymond Lesniak's successful bid for senate reelection in New Jersey's 20th District.
After the acquittal of
George Zimmerman
George Michael Zimmerman (born October 5, 1983) is an American man who fatally shot Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old African-American, in Sanford, Florida, on February 26, 2012. On July 13, 2013, he was acquitted of second-degree murder in '' F ...
in the
Trayvon Martin murder trial, Mayor Holley and Roselle's Borough Council submitted a formal plea to President
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...
and
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate alleged violations of civil rights relating to the 2012 fatal shooting. Roselle was the first Union County municipality to appeal to the Obama administration for further examination of the case after Zimmerman was found not guilty of second-degree murder and manslaughter charges.
New Jersey Assembly
Holley was unanimously chosen by Democratic committee members of the 20th district to fill the Assembly seat of
Joseph Cryan, who resigned in 2015 to become the Union County Sheriff.
He has since won two additional two-year terms in the Assembly, serving with Democratic running mate
Annette Quijano.
Committees
*Homeland Security and State Preparedness
*Health and Senior Services
2021 New Jersey State Senate election
Holley announced in January 2021 that he would challenge
Joseph Cryan in the June 8, 2021 primary for New Jersey State Senate. He lost the primary to Cryan by a wide margin.
Controversies
In 2009, Holley was charged with tampering with ballots in a primary election contest, a third-degree crime which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.
The charge was the result of an investigation by the Official Corruption Bureau of the New Jersey State Police.
Holley waived his right to indictment by a grand jury and agreed to be charged by accusation to filling out 30 absentee ballots.
After several power brokers denounced the attorney general's office for charging Holley, a judge allowed Holley to enter a pre-trial intervention program to avoid jail time over the attorney general's objections.
At the time, the governor's office backed the attorney general and commented, "any elected official charged with public corruption should step down because they can’t effectively serve the public under the cloud of the charges."
In 2016, Roselle Mayor Christine Dansereau, Holley's successor, accused him of harassment and intimidation in a police report. Dansereau announced her resignation for health reasons in June 2020. Holley was quoted saying, "I wish her well as she moves on."
Opposition to vaccines
Holley supports the
anti-vaccination movement In February 2020, at a rally of anti-vaccine activists at the
Connecticut State Capitol
The Connecticut State Capitol is located north of Capitol Avenue and south of Bushnell Park in Hartford, Connecticut, Hartford, the capital of Connecticut. The building houses the Connecticut General Assembly; the upper house, the Connecticut Sen ...
in opposition to a bill narrowing vaccine exemptions, Holley spoke in support of the anti-vaccination movement alongside attorney
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.; he had
whipped against a similar bill in New Jersey in early 2020, which passed the Assembly but later stalled in the Senate.
Kennedy, an anti-vaccine activist, has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for Holley through fundraising speeches, and delivered remarks to Holley and other members of the NJ Legislative Black Caucus in January on "the harmful effects of vaccinations."
Holley maintains an active social media presence and has directed accusatory tweets at
Bill Gates
William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American businessman and philanthropist. A pioneer of the microcomputer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s, he co-founded the software company Microsoft in 1975 with his childhood friend ...
, saying he "...injected and caused harm to mulitple
icminority families in India and Africa.".
Electoral history
New Jersey Senate
New Jersey Assembly
References
External links
Jamel C. Holley (D) - New Jersey Legislature Biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Holley, Jamel
1979 births
Living people
Abraham Clark High School alumni
African-American state legislators in New Jersey
Kean University alumni
Mayors of places in New Jersey
New Jersey city council members
New Jersey City University alumni
People from Roselle, New Jersey
Democratic Party members of the New Jersey General Assembly
21st-century mayors of places in New Jersey
Politicians from Union County, New Jersey
American anti-vaccination activists
21st-century African-American politicians
20th-century African-American politicians
Place of birth missing (living people)
21st-century members of the New Jersey Legislature