UPDATED: 04 NOV 2021 01:45 PM EST
New Jersey Senate President Steve Sweeney was defeated Tuesday by a virtually unknown Republican challenger, a stunning upset defeat that will send shock waves through Trenton and the rest of the state’s political landscape.
The Associated Press called the race for Edward Durr, a truck driver for the furniture store Raymour & Flanigan, early Thursday. The AP called the race with 100 percent of precincts reporting and Sweeney down by 2,298 votes to Durr.
Sweeney, however, wasn’t ready to concede.
“The results from Tuesday’s election continue to come in, for instance there were 12,000 ballots recently found in one county,” Sweeney said in a statement. “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.”
Sweeney, an officer in the Ironworkers union who’s been in charge of the upper house of the state Legislature for a record 12 years, was talked up in Democratic circles as a likely 2025 candidate for governor. His standing in this election was not in question.
Representing South Jersey’s 3rd Legislative District, Sweeney had amassed significant power in Trenton and his influence rivals that of governors. He shrewdly cut deals with former Republican Gov. Chris Christie, and had the ability to hold up key parts of Gov. Phil Murphy’s agenda.
Sweeney, who as Senate president is the state’s second most powerful elected official, hasn’t shied away from controversy. He clashed repeatedly with Murphy over the state’s budget and the millionaires tax while inking key agreements with Christie, a Republican with whom he enjoyed a productive alliance.
The Gloucester County resident’s legislative resume includes enacting cuts to public worker benefits, a pair of major tax incentive laws and a number of bills aimed at helping those with physical and developmental disabilities.
Sweeney’s loss is clearly the most stunning in an election that featured a number of surprises, including Murphy’s narrow victory over Republican Jack Ciattarelli.
Republicans made huge strides in down ballot races across the state, picking up seats in both the Senate and General Assembly and weakening the Democrats’ majorities in both chambers.
In the 3rd District, which includes parts of Gloucester, Cumberland and Salem counties, not only did Durr knock out Sweeney, but his Assembly running mates, Beth Sawyer and Bethanne McCarthy Patrick, are on the verge of defeating incumbent Democrats John Burzichelli and Adam Taliaferro (both D-Gloucester). The Assembly race has yet to be officially called.
Sweeney had anticipated staying on as Senate president through at least 2024, and his defeat creates a power vacuum that political brokers up and down the state are clamoring to fill.
Senate presidents have the ability to set the upper chamber's agenda, giving the leader remarkable sway in determining policies and gubernatorial appointments. Several members of Sweeney's leadership team, including Budget and Appropriations Chair Paul Sarlo (D-Bergen), Judiciary Chair Nicholas Scutari (D-Union) as well as Sen. Teresa Ruiz (D-Essex), who had already been announced as the new Senate majority leader for the 2022-2023 session, are all said to be jockeying for the top spot.
Durr, a 58-year-old father of three and grandfather of six who grew up in South Jersey, estimates he spent less than $10,000 on the race. By contrast, the New Jersey Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union, spent about $5.4 million on a 2017 effort to unseat Sweeney, yet he still won by 18 points.
Durr’s grassroots win and regular guy appeal brought him to the attention of national conservative figures, who celebrated him on social media. “Hahaha no way,” tweeted Texas Rep. Dan Crenshaw.
But New Jersey’s progressive activists were also celebrating after years of clashes with Sweeney and his patron, South Jersey Democratic powerbroker George Norcross, whose deal-making skills kept the Senate president in power so long. Norcross frequently teamed up with Christie, most notably on paring back public worker benefits.
“He has tried to torpedo almost every important piece of legislation going back over 10 years,” said Sue Altman, executive director of the New Jersey Working Families Alliance. “The regime in South Jersey has been a complete conservative, trickle-down economics, bad-on-most-issues regime.”
