Stunner: Delivery driver who spent $2,300 ousts Senate leader
New Jersey’s TRENTON, N.J. — longtime state Senate president, Democrat Steve Sweeney, lost reelection, falling to a Republican newcomer who spent only around two thousand dollars on the race and leaving his party reeling.
Edward Durr, a furniture company truck driver and political newcomer, defeated Sweeney in New Jersey’s 3rd Legislative District, according to results tallied Thursday.
Sweeney’s defeat was unexpected and threw his party’s legislative leadership contest into limbo Wednesday, when he postponed a meeting set for Thursday. Sweeney had been expected to return as Senate president, but who’ll take over and what margin Democrats will have in the state Legislature is unclear.
“It is stunning and shocking and I cannot figure it out,” said Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg said in an interview.
Sweeney has served as Senate president since 2010 and was responsible for shepherding Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy’s progressive agenda through the Legislature, including a phased-in $15 an hour minimum wage, paid sick leave and recreational marijuana legalization.
He is also known for his high-profile reversal on opposition to gay marriage. Sweeney said in 2011 that he made the “biggest mistake of my legislative career” when he voted against marriage equality.
Though Sweeney was a fellow Democrat, he fought Murphy at the start of his administration over raising income taxes on the wealthy and worked closely with Republican Chris Christie during his eight-year term in office ending in 2018.
Sweeney had faced electoral opposition before. In 2017, his feud with the state’s biggest teacher’s union over retirement benefits among other issues led to a battle in which the New Jersey Education Association spent millions to try to defeat Sweeney. The union’s effort failed.
But this year, Durr defeated him, spending $2,300, according to Election Law Enforcement Commission documents.
Durr describes himself as a 2nd Amendment rights advocate and fiscally conservative, who wants to lower taxes. He had described in interviews how unlikely he viewed his victory to be.