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Representative Donald M. Payne Jr., a five-term Democrat from Newark who succeeded his father, New Jersey’s first Black member of Congress, died on Wednesday in Newark. He was 65.
He had been hospitalized in Newark and unconscious since April 6, when he sustained a heart attack resulting from complications of diabetes, according to his office. His death was announced by Gov. Phil Murphy.
In 1988, Donald Payne Sr. fulfilled a dream he had publicly proclaimed 14 years earlier: being elected to the House as the first Black member of his state’s congressional delegation. He succeeded Peter W. Rodino Jr., whom he had unsuccessfully challenged earlier and who had retired.
In 2012, shortly after Mr. Payne died at 77, Donald Payne Jr. won a special election to fill the remainder of his term. He then survived a contentious six-way primary to win the Democratic nomination to represent the 10th District, which includes parts of Essex, Hudson and Union Counties, for a full two-year term beginning in January 2013.
The younger Mr. Payne was known for helping to secure $900 million in a federal allocation for the Gateway tunnel project under the Hudson River between New Jersey and New York, and for his support of lead testing in school water systems to prevent cancer and other ailments, a measure that passed the House and later the Senate. He also pressed for improved emergency responses to hurricanes and other natural disasters and proposed a neighborhood gun buyback program to improve public safety.
When the Democrats controlled the House of Representatives, before the 2022 election, he was chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines and Hazardous Materials and the Homeland Security Subcommittee on Emergency Preparedness, Response and Recovery.
In 2022, he had expected to face a primary challenge from his left flank. But a serious one did not materialize, and he won the Democratic nomination with 84 percent of the vote.
Donald Milford Payne Jr. was born on Dec. 17, 1958, in Newark. He was 5 years old when his mother, Hazel (Johnson) Payne, died, leaving his father to raise three children alone.
After graduating from Hillside High School in Hillside, N.J., in 1976, he studied graphic arts at Kean College (now Kean University) in Union. He began working for the New Jersey highway authority in 1991 — his jobs included Garden State Parkway toll collector — and in 1996 joined the Essex County Educational Services Commission as supervisor of student transportation.
He entered politics as president of the South Ward Young Democrats and began his electoral career in 2005 as a countywide candidate for Essex County freeholder, or commissioner. It was the same route his father had taken as a political novice in 1972. He was later elected president of the Newark City Council.
Mr. Payne had been running unopposed in the June 4 Democratic primary. It will be left to Governor Murphy to schedule a new date and a date for a special election to finish Mr. Payne’s unexpired term.
Mr. Payne’s survivors include his wife, Beatrice Payne, and their 13-year-old triplets, Donald III, Jack and Yvonne.
“With his signature bow tie, big heart and tenacious spirit, Donald embodied the very best of public service,” Governor Murphy said in a statement. “As a former union worker and toll collector, he deeply understood the struggles our working families face, and he fought valiantly to serve their needs. every single day.”
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