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Nellie Pou

U.S. House · NJ-9 · Democrats · since 2025

also

Candidate for U.S. House · NJ-9

Target Nellie

Biography

Overview

Nellie Pou is a Democrat from New Jersey serving as the U.S. representative for New Jersey's 9th congressional district since 2025. Born in 1956, Pou is the first woman and first Hispanic to have represented her original state legislative district. She previously served in the New Jersey Senate from 2012 to 2025, where she was Majority Caucus Chair, and in the New Jersey General Assembly from 1997 to 2012. Pou was selected to run for Congress in August 2024 following the death of incumbent Bill Pascrell and won her election by nearly 5 percentage points.

Career

In state government, Pou served as Deputy Speaker of the New Jersey General Assembly and chaired its Appropriations Committee. In the Senate, she was Majority Caucus Chair and chaired the bicameral New Jersey Legislative Latino Caucus since 2006. She also served as president of the National Hispanic Caucus of State Legislators from 2022 to 2023. Her professional background includes serving as business administrator for the City of Paterson and roles in human services and workforce training.

Prior political experience

Pou was first elected to the New Jersey General Assembly in 1997 to fill a vacancy, becoming the first woman and first Hispanic to represent the 35th district. She was elected to the New Jersey Senate in 2011, defeating former Haledon Mayor Ken Pengitore, and was re-elected in 2013, 2017, 2021, and 2023. In 2024, following the death of U.S. Representative Bill Pascrell, Pou was selected as the Democratic nominee for New Jersey's 9th congressional district. She won the general election with approximately 5 percentage points over Republican Billy Prempeh, a narrower margin than previous Democratic victories in the district.

Biographical material adapted from the Wikipedia article (retrieved April 29, 2026), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Ideology

Liberal–Conservative (DW-NOMINATE dim 1)

Liberal
Conservative
119th Congress-0.320

Secondary axis (DW-NOMINATE dim 2)(?)

−1
+1
+0.109
Source: Voteview DW-NOMINATE · 346 scored votes

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Officeholding history

TermSeatTerm datesTerminationPredecessorSuccessor
1stU.S. House NJ-92025–presentIn progress——

Committee assignments

Current term legislation

Bills sponsored this term10

Bills cosponsored this term10

Elections

YearSeatResultVote shareField
——Pending——