Rosemary Pino

Rosemary "Rosie" Pino is the Republican nominee for New Jersey's 9th Congressional District. A Rutgers finance graduate who worked in county government and the U.S. Treasury Department, she served on the Clifton Board of Education and has served on the Clifton City Council since 2019.[1][2] She won the June 2026 Republican primary over Tiffany Burress, 51.3% to 48.7%, and describes herself as having left the Democratic Party to run on a working-class platform.[1][2]

According to her campaign website, Pino was born to blue-collar immigrant parents from Ecuador and raised in New Jersey by a single mother. She has lived in Clifton for over 30 years and attended Clifton High School.[2][1] She describes herself as a teen mother and high school dropout who earned a GED and then a bachelor's degree in finance from Rutgers University while working multiple jobs.[2][1] Her career began in the Passaic County Community College finance department, and she then joined Passaic County One Stop, a career-development center that teaches résumé and interview skills to unemployed residents. Her campaign website also says she worked as a bank examiner at the U.S. Department of the Treasury.[1][2]

Pino ran unsuccessfully for the Clifton school board in 2011, finishing fifth, and later served two terms on the Clifton Board of Education; Ballotpedia lists her service as 2014 to 2019.[1][2] She was elected to the Clifton City Council in 2018 and has served since 2019; her campaign website says she was the first minority member elected to the council.[2][1]

According to her campaign website, Pino left the Democratic Party and became a Republican.[2][3] She won the June 2, 2026 Republican primary over Tiffany Burress, 51.3% to 48.7%, and the Associated Press called the race for her on June 12, 2026; she will face Democratic Rep. Nellie Pou in the general election.[1][3]

Her campaign website says she founded multiple nonprofits, volunteers with Relay for Life, serves on the board of the Theater League of Clifton, and is a PTO president. It says she lives in Clifton with her husband Eric and their 11 children, two of them adopted from foster care.[2]

Researched from the cited sources on 2026-10-21.