# Cleopatra Tucker

Cleopatra Gibson Tucker (born April 9, 1943) is an American Democratic Party politician, who has represented the 28th Legislative District in the New Jersey General Assembly since 2008.

## Biography

Tucker was born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama. She attended Tennessee State University, majoring in sociology. After moving to Newark, New Jersey, in 1966, she was hired by the Newark Housing Authority in 1976. She retired from the Authority in 2002. She is currently the executive director of a non-profit organization called The Centre, Inc. The Centre's headquarters was named after her late husband, Donald Kofi Tucker, in 2006.

## Personal life

Tucker has two grown children with her late husband and is a resident of Newark's Weequahic neighborhood.

## Political career

After Donald Tucker, who was both a Newark councilman and an Assemblyman, died in October 2005 and posthumously won re-election to his Assembly seat, Assemblyman Tucker was replaced in a special election convention by Evelyn Williams, who was elected to serve the remaining month of the term and to serve the first year of the full term. Williams resigned from the Assembly in January 2006 before the start of the new session, following her arrest for shoplifting, creating a vacant seat. A special election convention appointed Democratic Party activist Oadline Truitt to the seat for the first half of the term and she was re-elected in a November 2006 special election. In Truitt's first bid for a full two-year term, Tucker and Essex County Freeholder and former Assemblyman from the 1960s-1970s Ralph R. Caputo defeated Truitt and incumbent Assemblyman Craig A. Stanley in the June 2007 Democratic primary. Tucker and Caputo had the backing of Newark Mayor Cory Booker. Tucker has subsequently won re-election to the Assembly every two years since then.
In January 2011, Tucker introduced a bill that would require every bicycle in the state of New Jersey to display a license plate, which would be registered with the government for a small fee. Within about a week, she withdrew her proposal.

### Committees

Committee assignments for the 2024—2025 Legislative Session are:
* Military and Veterans' Affairs (as chair)
* Aging and Human Services (as vice-chair)

### District 28

Each of the 40 districts in the New Jersey Legislature has one representative in the New Jersey Senate and two members in the New Jersey General Assembly. The representatives from the 28th District for the 2024—2025 Legislative Session are:
* Senator Renee Burgess (D)
* Assemblyman Garnet Hall (D)
* Assemblywoman Cleopatra Tucker (D)

## Electoral history

28th Legislative District General Election, 2023 :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| | Democratic | Cleopatra G. Tucker (incumbent) | 19,094 | 46.3 |
| | Democratic | Garnet Hall | 18,637 | 45.2 |
| | Republican | Joy Freeman | 1,902 | 4.6 |
| | Republican | Willie S. Jetti | 1,600 | 3.9 |
| Total votes | Total votes | Total votes | 41,233 | 100.0 |
| | Democratic hold | Democratic hold | Democratic hold | Democratic hold |
| | Democratic hold | Democratic hold | Democratic hold | Democratic hold |
28th legislative district general election, 2021 :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| | Democratic | Ralph R. Caputo (incumbent) | 32,797 | 39.24% |
| | Democratic | Cleopatra G. Tucker (incumbent) | 32,719 | 39.15% |
| | Republican | Monique Headen | 9,063 | 10.84% |
| | Republican | Anthony D'Angelo | 9,005 | 10.77% |
| Total votes | Total votes | Total votes | 83,584 | 100.0 |
| | Democratic hold | Democratic hold | Democratic hold | Democratic hold |
28th Legislative District General Election, 2019 :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| | Democratic | Ralph Caputo (incumbent) | 16,234 | 41.5% |
| | Democratic | Cleopatra Tucker (incumbent) | 15,998 | 40.8% |
| | Republican | Joy Bembry-Freeman | 3,282 | 8.4% |
| | Republican | Antonio Pires | 3,025 | 7.7% |
| | Independent | Derrick Ross | 637 | 1.6% |
| Total votes | Total votes | Total votes | 37,284 | 100% |
| | Democratic hold | Democratic hold | Democratic hold | Democratic hold |