DeForest Soaries
DeForest "Buster" Soaries | |
|---|---|
Soaries in 2017 | |
| 30th Secretary of State of New Jersey | |
| In office January 1999 – January 2002 | |
| Governor | Christine Todd Whitman Donald DiFrancesco |
| Preceded by | Lonna Hooks |
| Succeeded by | Regena Thomas |
| Personal details | |
| Born | August 20, 1951 Brooklyn, New York, U.S. |
| Political party | Republican |
| Alma mater | Fordham University (BA) Princeton Theological Seminary (MDiv) United Theological Seminary (DMin) |
The Reverend DeForest Blake "Buster" Soaries, Jr. (born August 20, 1951) is an African-American Baptist minister, author and public advocate, from Montclair, New Jersey. He is the former Secretary of State of New Jersey and former chairman of the federal Election Assistance Commission. He was the senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Lincoln Gardens in Somerset, New Jersey, a position he had held since November 1990 until his retirement from the church in June 2021.