The 1997 New Jersey General Assembly elections were held on November 4, 1997, for all 80 seats in the lower house of the New Jersey Legislature. The election coincided with a gubernatorial election where Republican Christine Todd Whitman won. Republicans held a 50-30 majority in the lower house prior to the election. The members of the New Jersey Legislature are chosen from 40 electoral districts. Each district elects one state senator and two State Assembly members. New Jersey uses coterminous legislative districts for both its State Senate and General Assembly.
Republicans flipped one seat in the 4th. Democrats were able to flip one seat in the 6th and both in the 7th. After eight months in office, the courts threw out the results of the 1997 election in the 7th district for Democrat Jack Conners due to problems with 160 uncounted ballots from a voting machine that affected the results for the second seat. Conners was ordered to leave office in September 1998, and Republican Ken Faulkner was seated in his place. In a November 1998 special election, Conners defeated Faulkner by 5,500 votes and was sworn into office for a second time that year.
Districts where the difference of total votes between the top-two parties was under 10%: