James Solomon ’06 will be the next mayor of Jersey City, New Jersey, after receiving 68% of the vote in Tuesday’s runoff election against the state’s former governor.
The Pomona alumnus takes office January 1 and will lead New Jersey’s second-largest city.
Solomon majored in public policy analysis at Pomona and was elected student speaker for Commencement. After graduating, he spent four years developing a passion for city government in St. Louis and Chicago, then pursued graduate study at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.
While at Harvard, Solomon spent two years learning how cities function while working in the office of Boston Mayor Thomas Menino. He also met his wife, Gabrielle, during that time. They have three daughters.
Solomon won a Jersey City council seat in 2017 and was re-elected in 2021.
His mayoral campaign focused on issues such as housing affordability, fixing basic public services, and transparency in government.
After winning the most votes in the November 4 general election, Solomon gained the support of his mayoral rivals and New Jersey’s U.S. Senator Andy Kim.
“I wouldn’t have run if I didn’t believe that the challenges the city faces are solvable,” Solomon said in his acceptance speech Tuesday evening. “At the end of the day, what made this campaign successful … is we believed in what we could do, not what we couldn’t do.”
“I can’t wait to get to work on behalf of all of you,” he said.
Solomon is a cancer survivor, having overcome Hodgkin lymphoma that was diagnosed in 2015.
“Life is short,” he said he learned from the experience. “And I really want to use my time to do right by folks.”