DeForest Soaries

The Reverend DeForest Blake "Buster" Soaries, Jr. is a Baptist minister, author and public advocate, from Montclair, New Jersey. A member of the Republican Party, He is the former Secretary of State of New Jersey and former chairman of the federal Election Assistance Commission. An African-American, 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.