Dawn Fantasia
Member of the New Jersey General Assembly
from the 24th district
Assumed office
January 9, 2024
Serving with Mike Inganamort
Preceded byParker Space
Hal Wirths
Personal details
Political partyRepublican
EducationDavis and Elkins College (BA)
Rutgers University Center for Effective School Practices
Capella University (MS)
WebsiteLegislative webpage

Dawn Fantasia is an American Republican Party politician serving as a member of the New Jersey General Assembly for the 24th legislative district, having taken office on January 9, 2024. She also works as the principal of Bergen Arts and Science Charter School in Garfield, New Jersey.[1]

Biography

A resident of Sussex County for 30 years, Fantasia was raised in Ogdensburg and graduated from Wallkill Valley Regional High School before moving to Franklin Borough in 2011 where she currently resides. She graduated from Davis and Elkins College in West Virginia with a bachelor's degree in education. She would also later take classes at the Rutgers University Center for Effective School Practices and then earn a master's degree in educational leadership from Capella University.[2] She has three children and is a single mother.[1]

Elective office

Fantasia started serving in public office in Franklin Borough in 2014 as a member of the planning board, zoning board and economic development committee. She then served on the Franklin Borough council for three years, including one year as council president. She was elected to the Sussex County Board of County Commissioners in 2018.[2][1]

Fantasia ran for the New Jersey General Assembly in 2023 after incumbents Parker Space and Hal Wirths announced their retirements. Space would later change his mind on retirement from the legislature and run for the district's State Senate seat after incumbent Steve Oroho, also the Republican Minority Leader in the State Senate, announced late that he would retire. In the primary election in June 2023, Fantasia and Chester Borough Mayor Mike Inganamort ran together[3] with the endorsements of Oroho, Space and Wirths[4] and defeated Jason Sarnoski, a Warren County Commissioner, and Josh Aikens, the President of the Lafayette Township School District Board of Education (who ran together) as well as 2022 candidate for New Jersey's 11th congressional district Rob Kovic.[5]

Fantasia and Inganamort easily defeated Democrat Alicia Sharma and independent Veronica Fernandez in the general election on November 7 in the solidly Republican district.[6] She became the first woman to represent the 24th legislative district since Assemblywoman Gail Phoebus left office in January 2018 and was also the only new Republican woman elected to the Assembly in 2023 after seven (Claire Swift, Bethanne McCarthy-Patrick, Beth Sawyer, Kimberly Eulner, Marilyn Piperno, Vicky Flynn and Michele Matsikoudis) were elected in the previous Assembly election in 2021.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "About Dawn". Parker, Dawn and Mike. Retrieved January 10, 2024.
  2. 1 2 "Board of County Commissioners: Dawn Fantasia". Sussex County, New Jersey. Retrieved January 10, 2024.
  3. ↑ David Wildstein (January 18, 2023). "Fantasia, Inganamort running together for open 24th district Assembly seats". New Jersey Globe. Mayfair Media. Retrieved January 10, 2024.
  4. ↑ David Wildstein (March 9, 2024). "Oroho and Wirths endorse Space for Senate, Fantasia and Inganamort for Assembly". New Jersey Globe. Mayfair Media. Retrieved January 10, 2024.
  5. ↑ Fox, Joey (June 6, 2023). "Fantasia, Inganamort win close Assembly primary in LD24". New Jersey Globe. Mayfair Media. Retrieved January 10, 2024.
  6. ↑ Official List Candidates for General Assembly for General Election November 7, 2023, New Jersey Department of State, December 6, 2023. Accessed December 23, 2023.
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