PCDO County and Local Endorsement Meeting Results
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Eligibility
Members must have signed up by March 1, 2026 in order to vote. Princeton Members and Affiliate Members who reside in Mercer County were eligible to vote for Mercer County Commissioner, and Princeton Members were eligible to vote for Princeton Council. 180 Members checked-in on Sunday, March 15, and the split was 166 Princeton Members and 14 Affiliate Members.
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The Candidates
Candidate statements are posted below as they were received prior to the endorsement meeting. We will keep all candidate statements active and accessible below for reference up until the Primary on June 2, 2026.
Regardless of the outcome of the March 15 Endorsement Meeting, the PCDO is committed to supporting all candidates competing in the Democratic Primary. The PCDO will continue to share candidate events in the area via email to the membership for any Primary candidate. In addition, no funds of the organization may be expended on behalf of any endorsed candidate except in a special or general election for public office, according to Article IX, Sec. 3 of our bylaws. Therefore, the PCDO cannot cosponsor any candidate fundraisers or events for the duration of the Primary, even the endorsed candidate.
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The Results Council
All voting members attending the meeting cast a single ballot. Voters were asked to indicate their frst two choices for a 2 seat race, and a 3rd Ranked candidate for the purposes of re-allocating votes in the instance of a runoff.
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A candidate received the endorsement of the PCDO only if they obtained votes equal to or greater than 60% of the total ballots cast for that office. The PCDO bylaws provided for a potential runoff because the number of candidates exceeded the number of open seats by two or more. An instant runoff occurred only if no candidate in the initial round met the required endorsement threshold of 60%.
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Voters were instructed to rank the candidates beginning with their first choice and were permitted to rank as many or as few candidates as they wished. After all ballots were submitted, an initial round of counting was conducted. Each voter’s could cast two first-choice votes which were treated equally, and these votes constituted the results of the initial round.
​​Initial Round
​165 ballots were cast, and 1 was a spoiled ballot for a total of 164 valid ballots cast. PCDO's 60% endorsement threshold was therefore 99 votes, and its 40% support threshold was 66 votes.
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The initial round first choice vote tallies (2 votes) are listed below in alphabetical order. Bold Indicates top three candidates that advanced to runoff:
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David Cohen: 97 (59.15%)
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Jon Durbin: 68 (41.46%)
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Leanna Jahnke: 65 (39.63%)
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Marina Rubina: 81 (49.39%)
​No candidate met the 60% endorsement threshold in the initial round, and an instant runoff occurred. The runoff included the top three vote-getters (the number of open positions plus one). All candidates who did not advance to the runoff were considered eliminated.
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If a voter’s initial-round choice was a candidate who was eliminated, that vote was automatically transferred to the voter’s next highest-ranked candidate who qualified for the runoff. If all candidates a voter ranked were eliminated, the ballot was considered exhausted and counted as a vote of no endorsement.
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After all applicable transfers were completed, the ballots were counted again.
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Instant Runoff
The instant runoff tallies are listed below in alphabetical order. Bold indicates candidate receiving the PCDO endorsement and italics indicates candidates receiving the PCDO Support.
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David Cohen: 115 (+18) (70.12%)
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Jon Durbin: 82 (+14) (50.00%)
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Marina Rubina: 94 (+13) (57.32%)​​
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No Endorsement: 20 (+20) (12.20%)
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Congratulations to David Cohen for receiving the PCDO Endorsement for Princeton Council and Jon Durbin and Marina Rubina for Receiving the PCDO Support!
Mercer County Board of Commissioners
All voting members attending the meeting cast a single ballot. Voters were asked to indicate their first two choices for a 2 seat race. ​A candidate received the endorsement of the PCDO only if they obtained votes equal to or greater than 60% of the total ballots cast for that office. There is no PCDO 40% support threshold for County races per PCDO Bylaws. The PCDO bylaws did not provide for a potential runoff because the number of candidates did not exceed the number of open seats by two or more.
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​​Initial Round
179 ballots were submitted, 16 of which were spoiled or blank, for a total of 163 valid ballots cast. PCDO's 60% endorsement threshold was therefore 98 votes.
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The initial round first choice vote tallies (2 votes) are listed below in alphabetical order. Bold Indicates top three candidates that received the endorsement:
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Nakia White Barr: 116 (71.17%)
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John A. Cimino: 67 (41.10%)
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Lucylle "Lucy" Walter: 91 (55.83%)
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No Endorsement: 9 (5.52%)
​Congratulations to Nakia White Barr for receiving the PCDO Endorsement for Mercer County Commissioner!
Democratic Candidates for Princeton Council (2 Seats)
Democratic Candidates for Mercer County Board of Commissioners
(2 Seats)
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