to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that condemned Azerbaijan’s offensive operations against the Armenian-populated enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, denounced Turkey’s role in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, and called for an immediate ceasefire. Personal life In 1972, Watson Coleman married Jim Carter. They had a son. They divorced in the early 1980s. In 1995, she married William Coleman. He has two sons from a previous marriage. Watson Coleman's two sons, William Carter-Watson and Jared C. Coleman, pleaded guilty to holding up the Kids "R" Us store at Mercer Mall with a handgun as it was about to close on March 12, 2001; they were sentenced to seven years in prison and served years. Watson Coleman has acknowledged it in the past and introduced legislation "that bars companies with more than 15 employees to conduct criminal background checks on candidates during the interview process". She argued for the law, saying, "One of the greatest barriers to a second chance in the state of New Jersey is a barrier to employment”; it was later passed and signed into law. In 2014, her son William Carter-Watson was hired by the Mercer County Parks Commission as an entry-level laborer. When asked for comment, Brian Hughes, the County Executive, said, "the county has maintained a policy of hiring ex-convicts in search of a second chance". In the summer of 2018, Watson Coleman underwent surgery to remove a cancerous tumor. Watson Coleman tested positive for COVID-19 on January 11, 2021. She believed she contracted the virus from Republican colleagues who refused to wear masks while they sheltered together during the 2021 storming of the Capitol. Electoral history See also List of African-American United States representatives Women in the United States House of Representatives References External links Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman official U.S. House website Bonnie Watson Coleman for Congress |- |- |- |- 1945 births 21st-century American politicians 21st-century American women politicians African-American members of the United States House of Representatives African-American state legislators in New Jersey African-American women in politics Chairmen of the New Jersey Democratic State Committee Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from New Jersey Ewing High School (New Jersey) alumni Female members of the United States House of Representatives Living people Democratic Party members of the New Jersey General Assembly People from Ewing Township, New Jersey Politicians from Camden, New Jersey Stockton University Thomas Edison State University alumni Women state legislators