Carmen Bucco

Carmen Bucco was born in New Jersey and graduated from Nutley High School in 1990. According to his campaign website, he grew up in the foster care system and lived on the streets at times.[2][3] He works as a tailor and owns Bucco Couture, a tailoring business that his campaign website calls a small business, and he is a former Belleville school board member, according to the New Jersey Globe. His campaign website says he has a foundation, Bucco's Rising Stars, that supports children.[2][3][4]

Bucco ran unsuccessfully as the Republican candidate for New Jersey State Senate District 20 in 2023, losing to incumbent Joseph Cryan. He then won the Republican nomination for NJ-10 and lost both the September 2024 special election and the November 2024 general election to LaMonica McIver.[2] In 2025 he won the June Republican primary for New Jersey General Assembly District 20 with 95.2% of the vote and finished third in the November general election with 14.3%, behind Democrats Annette Quijano and Ed Rodriguez.[2] He won the June 2, 2026 Republican primary for NJ-10 unopposed and was on the November 3, 2026 ballot.[2][5] During the campaign, his website said he was running to put people first and focus on stopping corruption.[2][3] He received 15.4% of the vote to LaMonica McIver's 84.6%, according to unofficial results reported by NBC News.[1]