Tiffany Burress, the spouse of former New York Giants star Plaxico Burress, introduced a Republican bid Tuesday for a North Jersey congressional seat lengthy held by Democrats.
Tiffany Burress introduced her run Tuesday, contrasting her work within the personal sector to Rep. Nellie Pou’s public workplace resume.
Her husband memorably caught the 2008 Tremendous Bowl’s game-winning landing to snuff out the New England Patriots’ 2007 undefeated common season and completed his Giants profession with 4,086 receiving yards.
Tiffany Burress, a Pittsburgh native, serves on the Employees’ Comp committee of the New Jersey State Bar Affiliation, has been acknowledged as certainly one of Bergen County’s “high attorneys” and was a collegiate athlete at Penn State College in Centre County, Pennsylvania.
In her announcement, she criticized Pou, who gained the seat of Invoice Pascrell Jr. in 2024 after the Democrat died in workplace at 87, simply months earlier than the election, for the sequence of “doorways” which have “been opened” for her.
“Congresswoman Nellie Pou has a charmed life. Fifty years on the federal government dime, by no means had a non-public sector job: In 1997, doorways began opening. The occasion bosses gave Nellie two jobs, a metropolis administrator and a state meeting seat,” Burress mentioned, earlier than pivoting to evaluating Pou’s voting report to that of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.
Burress, working as a Republican, mentioned that as a substitute of getting doorways opened for her, she “busted by them,” and that, not like Democrats, is prepared to “bust out doorways” to inform the GOP they’re incorrect when they’re.
“Let’s strive one thing totally different,” Burress, of Totowa, mentioned.
Burress’ race may probably be one of many extra attention-grabbing contests within the Backyard State, no matter who her vast receiver husband is.
The seat, which incorporates the MetLife/Giants Stadium advanced in East Rutherford, has not elected a Republican since Rep. Harold Hollenbeck’s re-election in 1981.
Since then, the seat has been held by a who’s who of outstanding North Jersey Democrats, together with Robert “The Torch” Torricelli, from 1983 to 1997, and Pascrell from 2013 till his loss of life in August 2024.
The hourglass-shaped district runs from Pompton Lakes alongside the northern finish of Interstate 287, diagonally following the similarly-shaped confines of Passaic County, together with the closely Democratic and closely minority metropolis of Paterson and into various southern Bergen County suburbs of New York Metropolis like Moonachie, Carlstadt and rich Edgewater.
Whereas anticipated to win handily over GOP challenger Billy Prempeh in 2024, Pou eked out a four-point win as President Donald Trump flipped the district — and Passaic County — completely.
On the time, the shock was chalked as much as Passaic’s closely Hispanic and Jewish inhabitants.
And whereas Paterson swung greater than 20 factors in his path, based on the New Jersey Globe, Trump and Republicans could have an uphill battle there with its Muslim inhabitants outraged on the administration.
That dynamic most lately made information after Director of Nationwide Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard warned at AmericaFest of alleged efforts in Paterson to “implement Islamic ideas,” which drew native ire.
In 2025’s gubernatorial contest, the district once more sided with the top-of-the-ticket Democrat, Mikie Sherrill.
Whereas Fox Information Digital reached out to Pou’s workplace and a person listed on her FEC filings for remark, her marketing campaign web page touted her working-class roots in Paterson and neighboring Haledon.
“All through her profession, Nellie has been dedicated to bettering the lives of New Jerseyans. From preventing for higher faculties for our children to extra inexpensive well being care, to prison justice reform, Nellie has been on the forefront of a few of New Jersey’s and America’s hardest fights,” a press release on her marketing campaign web page mentioned.
