1977 New Jersey Senate election

1977 New Jersey State Senate elections

← 1973 November 8, 1977 1981 →
All 40 seats in the New Jersey State Senate 21 seats needed for a majority
Majority party Minority party Third party   Leader Matthew Feldman James Cafiero Party Democratic Republican Independent Leader's seat 37th 1st Last election 29 10 1 Seats before 28 10 1 Seats won 27 13 0 Seat change 1 3 1
Results by district      Democratic hold      Democratic gain      Republican hold      Republican gain
Senate President before election Matthew Feldman Democratic Elected Senate President Joseph P. Merlino Democratic

The 1977 New Jersey State Senate election coincided with Brendan Byrne's re-election to a second term as Governor of New Jersey.

The election coincided with Governor Brendan Byrne's re-election over Senator Raymond Bateman. Byrne narrowly survived a primary election which eliminated seven incumbent Democratic Senators. Despite the intra-party division and early polls indicating Byrne was an underdog in the general election, Byrne survived and the Democrats preserved their large majority in the Senate, losing just one seat on aggregate.^[1] This is the last time Democrats held a veto-proof majority in the chamber.

Democrats chose Joseph P. Merlino as the Senate President and Carmen Orechio as Majority Leader; Republicans named Garrett Hagedorn as Minority Leader.^[2]