Republican newcomer delivers N.J. shocker
State Senate President Sweeney loses election
TRENTON, N.J. — New Jersey’s longtime state Senate president, Democrat Steve Sweeney lost reelection, falling to a Republican newcomer who spent little money and underscoring Democratic woes in the Biden era.
Edward Durr, a furniture company truck driver and first-time officeholder, defeated Sweeney in New Jersey’s 3rd Legislative District, according to results tallied Thursday.
Sweeney’s defeat was unexpected, and has cast the fate of state government into uncertainty.
“It is stunning and shocking and I cannot figure it out,” Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg said in an interview.
His loss unfolded in a politically competitive suburban Philadelphia district whose counties split their votes between Democrats and Republicans in the presidential elections in 2016 and again in 2020.
It also coincided with boosted GOP turnout even in an off-year election that saw Republicans make gains across the state. Durr’s victory Thursday netted about 3 percent more votes than Sweeney did in 2017 in unofficial returns.
Sweeney’s attention was also focused on tight Senate races elsewhere in the state.
“I don’t really think it was Steve
Sweeney,” said incoming Republican Senate Leader Steve Oroho. “I think it had to do with the message coming from people who were just annoyed at all the executive orders and all the mandates and being sick and tired of being told what they can and can’t do.”
The loss says more about the headwinds Democrats are facing after losing the governor’s race in Virginia and winning a narrow victory in New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy’s race against Republican Jack Ciattarelli, experts said.
“This was a protest vote against the Biden administration and Murphy,” said Montclair State University political science professor Brigid Harrison. “Steve was in many ways just how people voiced their dissatisfaction and anger with the larger political structure.”
Sweeney said in a statement Thursday he was waiting for more votes to come in before acknowledging the loss.
“While I am currently trailing in the race, we want to make sure every vote is counted. Our voters deserve that, and we will wait for the final results,” he said.
Sweeney has served as Senate president since 2010 and was responsible for shepherding 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.
A deal he worked out with Christie to overhaul public worker pension put Sweeney at odds with public sector unions, who would go on to become key supporters of Murphy.
Sweeney’s loss was cheered by progressive Democrats from southern New Jersey, who saw him as a product of transactional, machine politics.
“Today is glorious,” said Sue Altman, director of New Jersey Working Families, in a tweet. Altman is a longtime critic of Sweeney’s and saw him as focused on trying to maintain control of the Democratic party, particularly in southern New Jersey.
His allies say he was open-minded and eventually delivered for the left.