# Shavonda E. Sumter

Shavonda E. Sumter (born January 19, 1974) is an American Democratic Party politician who has represented the 35th Legislative District in the New Jersey General Assembly since taking office in January 2012.
In February 2025, Sumter announced that she would not be running in the 2025 New Jersey General Assembly election.

## Personal

Sumter was born in Paterson, New Jersey, the daughter of Charles and Bonnie Williams. She attended public and private schools in Paterson, Prospect Park, and Haledon. She graduated from Kean University in 1996 with a B.A. degree in political science. She earned an M.B.A. degree in health care administration from Fairleigh Dickinson University. Sumter has worked in health services and currently serves as director of behavioral health services at Mountainside Medical Center in Glen Ridge.
Sumter has served on the New Jersey Democratic State Committee since 2008. She was one of the members of the electoral college who cast a ballot for Barack Obama and Joe Biden after the 2008 presidential election. In 2010, Sumter was the campaign manager for Jeffery Jones in his successful campaign for Mayor of Paterson.
As of September 2016, Sumter was considering a run for the Democratic nomination for governor in 2017, and was also considered the leading candidate for selection as the party's candidate for lieutenant governor. However, the eventual Democratic nominee for governor, Phil Murphy, chose Assemblywoman Sheila Oliver as his running mate.
In 2024, following the death of Congressman Bill Pascrell, Sumter briefly campaigned to be the replacement Democratic candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives election for New Jersey's 9th congressional district, but eventually withdrew.
A resident of North Haledon, she is married to Kenneth Sumter and has two children: Tyler (1998) and Kenneth Jr. (2000)

## New Jersey General Assembly

In the 2011 New Jersey General Assembly election, there were two open Assembly seats in the 35th District, after Nellie Pou decided to run for the State Senate and Elease Evans retired. Sumter and her running mate, Benjie E. Wimberly, defeated the Republican candidates, William Connolly and Donna Puglisi. She was sworn in on January 10, 2012. She held the leadership positions in the Assembly of Majority Conference Leader from 2015 to 2019 and was Deputy Speaker from 2014 to 2015.

### Committees

Committee assignments for the 2024—2025 Legislative Session are:
* Community Development and Women's Affairs (as chair)
* Environment, Natural Resources, and Solid Waste (as vice-chair)
* Labor

### District 35

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 35th District for the 2024—2025 Legislative Session are:
* Senator Benjie Wimberly (D)
* Assemblyman Al Abdelaziz (D)
* Assemblywoman Shavonda E. Sumter (D)

## Electoral history

35th Legislative District General Election, 2023 :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| | Democratic | Benjie Wimberly (incumbent) | 12,320 | 50.2 |
| | Democratic | Shavonda Sumter (incumbent) | 12,214 | 49.8 |
| Total votes | Total votes | Total votes | 24,534 | 100.0 |
| | Democratic hold | Democratic hold | Democratic hold | Democratic hold |
| | Democratic hold | Democratic hold | Democratic hold | Democratic hold |
35th legislative district general election, 2021 :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| | Democratic | Benjie Wimberly (incumbent) | 20,276 | 34.56% |
| | Democratic | Shavonda Sumter (incumbent) | 20,235 | 34.49% |
| | Republican | Ramzy Yamisha | 9,166 | 15.62% |
| | Republican | Iman Majagah | 8,990 | 15.32% |
| Total votes | Total votes | Total votes | 58,667 | 100.0 |
| | Democratic hold | Democratic hold | Democratic hold | Democratic hold |
35th Legislative District General Election, 2019 :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| | Democratic | Benjie Wimberly (incumbent) | 13,213 | 43.61% |
| | Democratic | Shavonda Sumter (incumbent) | 13,173 | 43.48% |
| | Republican | Tamer Mamkej | 3,909 | 12.9% |
| Total votes | Total votes | Total votes | 30,295 | 100% |