When the 40-district legislative map was created in 1973, the 21st district was originally in eastern Union County consisting of
Elizabeth,
Linden, and
Winfield Township plus
Carteret in
Middlesex County. Dunn ran as an independent and lost to Gregorio in the general election.
Peter J. Genova was elected in a special election to fill Gill's vacant seat.
Joel Weingarten was elected to the Assembly in a November 1996 special election in which he defeated Democratic candidate Robert R. Peacock to fill the one year remaining on the vacant seat of
Monroe Jay Lustbader, who had died in office in March 1996. Changes to the district made as part of the
legislative redistricting in 2001, based on the results of the
2000 United States census removed Kenilworth and
Union Township (both to the
20th legislative district)
Caldwell,
Essex Fells,
Livingston Township, North Caldwell Township and
Roseland (all to the
27th legislative district), Cedar Grove and
Verona (both to the
40th legislative district) and added Berkeley Heights Township, Chatham Township, Cranford Township, Garwood, Long Hill Township, Mountainside, New Providence, Warren Township, Watchung and Westfield (from the
22nd legislative district),
Harding Township (from the
25th legislative district) and
Madison (from the
26th legislative district). The 2011 apportionment added Chatham Borough (from district 26), Bernards Township (from
district 16), Far Hills (from district 16) and Kenilworth (from
district 20). Removed were
Chatham Township, Harding Township,
Madison, and Millburn, all of which were shifted into the
27th legislative district. A special convention of Republican Party delegates chose
Nancy Munoz in May 2009 to succeed her husband,
Eric Munoz, following his death in March of that year. ==Election history==