Jackson Mayor Jennifer Kuhn has received disturbing Facebook messages, profane voicemails and even an unsigned package of gummies shaped like male genitalia. She is one of a dozen women serving as mayors across New Jersey interviewed for a new report; some described threats of violence or sexualized harassment, and the report included accounts of menace aimed at their children. Four officials said they had not personally experienced workplace harassment, while some have chosen to walk away from public life rather than keep absorbing the abuse.
Kuhn’s ordeal escalated beyond her inbox. As reported by nj.com, a man showed up at her rental property in September agitated and looking to confront her, though she was not there at the time. Someone also wished her dead and told her to leave the country with her family, according to app.com. As of September 18, Jackson police had made no arrests and were still trying to identify the man who confronted her.
A Pattern Playing Out Across the State
Kuhn is far from alone. An NJ.com special report by reporter Brianna Kudisch found that female mayors across the state — representing different political parties, ages and communities — face threats ranging from sexist remarks to threats of rape and violence, including menace directed at their children. The outlet interviewed 12 female mayors who described harassment or intimidation, though four of those surveyed said they had not personally experienced workplace harassment.
Jenny Mundell was touched on the shoulders and threatened by a man in June, the report notes, and now requires a police presence at all of her public appearances. La’Daena Londo has found AirTags affixed to her car on two separate occasions and reported the tracking devices to police; she has also been targeted with racial slurs and said the stress of being stalked was nearly killing her, according to the same account. Londo now avoids traveling alone when returning home late at night.
Other mayors described similarly disruptive precautions. One mayor now drives to council meetings after police asked her not to walk from home, while another attends public events only with a police presence, per the NJ.com report.
Harassment That Reaches Into Officials' Homes
Hoboken Mayor Emily Jabbour has her own history with the harassment that comes with the job. In 2022, while serving as Hoboken council president, she received an anonymous self-help book and a threatening note at her home. She reported the gift to Hoboken police and contacted Amazon in an effort to identify the sender, the report states.
That case has since been resolved. Matt Majer pleaded guilty to harassment for giving a similar gift to a private Hoboken resident and admitted to sending the book and note to Jabbour, according to Hudson County View. A June 23 plea transcript cited by that outlet shows Majer admitted to committing the same act against four people total, including Jabbour, as well as Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla. Jabbour said people call her misogynistic slurs and threaten violence against her on social media, but she remains interested in public service despite it, per the NJ.com account.
Bhalla’s own experience with threats has been documented separately. He received anonymous letters threatening to kill his son, daughter and wife before going after him, according to a prior nj.com investigation into harassment of local officials. That same reporting found Haddonfield Mayor Colleen Bianco Bezich faced threats targeting her husband, young son and another family member, including wishes that her husband would die — and the report notes she received more than 100 abusive messages or comments from a single critic within one month before deciding not to run again amid the persistent harassment.
Some Mayors Are Stepping Away
The personal costs described by these women can be severe enough to push them out of office altogether. Former Sayreville Mayor Victoria Kilpatrick chose not to seek reelection because she feared for her safety after Councilwoman Eunice Dwumfour was shot and killed, the earlier nj.com report found. Former Montgomery Mayor and Assemblywoman Sadaf Jaffer left office after racist attacks, fearing the harassment would affect her young daughter, according to the same investigation.
Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University’s Eagleton Institute of Politics, has said harassment can deter women from running for office in the first place. Rutgers political science professor Paru Shah has noted that female mayors of color face the combined effects of racism and sexism — a dynamic reflected in Jody Veler’s experience meeting roughly nine other Black female mayors in South Jersey at an event, where shared stories of harassment emerged.
Small-town mayors in particular may live near their tormentors, sharing the same streets, stores and schools — a proximity that can make harassment feel inescapable. Experts and mayors interviewed for the nj.com report attributed the rise in hostility partly to the pandemic and to President Donald Trump, with COVID-19 lockdowns cited as a contributor to social isolation and increased exposure to toxic online communities.
The Numbers Behind the Pattern
Janice Kovach received text messages during the pandemic saying her children should kill themselves, according to the nj.com report, while Lisa Crate blocked more than 100 social media accounts during a contentious 2025 election. These individual accounts align with broader survey data. A 2025 national study by the Mayors Innovation Project found that 25% of female mayors faced harassment at least three times monthly, compared with 10% of male mayors, according to MPR News. The same project found female mayors reported threats to their families nearly twice as often as their male counterparts, and that 40% of female mayors reported experiencing sexual harassment compared with just 5% of male mayors.
The hostility directed at local officials is not confined to New Jersey. In Vermont, Burlington Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak was granted a one-year extension of an anti-stalking order requiring Aryeh Moskowitz, a past critic, to stay six feet away from her at all times, according to VTDigger. Moskowitz was criminally charged with stalking and harassment in June after Mulvaney-Stanak reported he had accosted her on multiple occasions and caused her to fear for her family’s safety.
