Mercer County Republicans have elected Pat Johnson as the new Republican county chairman and are looking to rebuild a county party that is more of a club than an organization.

Johnson defeated former Ewing Board of Education President Maria Bua 120 to 105, a margin of 53% to 47%.

She succeeds Lisa Richford, who did not seek re-election after a turbulent 11 years in which Mercer became one of the least politically contested districts in the state.

Johnson, who worked as a cancer care nurse, lost a general election bid in the 15th District by a wide margin in 2021 and then moved to the neighboring 14th District to run for Senate in 2023. She lost to state Sen. Linda Greenstein (D-Plainsboro) by nearly 20 points.

She is one of six new Republican county chairs in the state; incumbents lost their seats in Camden, Gloucester, Somerset and Union, and in Bergen, Jack Zisa retired and was replaced by Jack DeLorenzo.

Republicans in Mercer County have not won a statewide election in 24 years and a legislative election in 18 years. After the defeat of Hopewell Borough Councilman Sky Morehouse in 2023, no local official has been elected as a Republican in a partisan election in Mercer County.

Republicans suffered a major setback in 2019 when they lost the mayoralty in Hamilton Township; now Democrats have a 5-0 majority on the council.

Bua served as co-chair of the GOP in Mercer in 2011 after Roy Wesley resigned from his controversial four-year term. She shared the post with Robbinsville Mayor Dave Fried.

In 2012, Bua and Fried resigned and a Fried ally, Richard Levesque, became district chairman.

Richford faced attempts to unseat her, but she blocked votes on the issues. She has run for office twice herself, receiving 38% in a 2011 bid for Mercer County deputy and 33% last year against Democrat Dan Benson for county executive.

She was re-elected in 2020 by a vote of 86 to 42 against Lawrence Republican Club President Falk Engel.

The last Republican statewide victory in Mercer came in 2000, when County Clerk Cathy DiCostanzo was re-elected with 52% of the vote. DiCostanzo ran for county clerk in 2003 when another Republican, Robert Prunetti, resigned; Democrat Brian Hughes defeated her by 1,673 votes, 49% to 37%. When DiCostanzo ran for county clerk again in 2005, Democrat Paula Sollami Covello unseated her by 237 votes out of more than 94,000 cast.

Middlesex County Republican Chairman Robert Bengivenga faced no opponent in his re-election campaign tonight.