Democrats keep control of N.J. Legislature as State Sen. Edward ‘Ed the Trucker’ Durr loses

New Jersey Democrats expanded their majority in the New Jersey Legislature in Tuesday’s election, recapturing a key South Jersey seat lost two years ago and holding off Republicans in competitive races that featured an electorate fractured over ocean wind turbines, abortion, the treatment of trans students, and school parental notification.

On Tuesday, those cultural divisions energized New Jersey voters mostly in the direction of Democrats, as they did elsewhere in the country.

After 2021′s shocker, in which Republican truck driver Edward Durr defeated State Senate President and Democratic powerhouse Steve Sweeney in Gloucester County’s Third District and a closer-than-expected win for Gov. Phil Murphy, nothing in New Jersey politics was being taken for granted.

On Tuesday, Durr ran out of gas, losing to Democrat John Burzichelli, a former 10-term assemblyman and mayor of Paulsboro.

Durr’s running mates in the Assembly also lost to Democrats, two of five Assembly seats Democrats picked up to expand their majority in that house.

Burzichelli said his campaign prioritized women’s health and reproductive rights, and affordability in the expensive state.

“I think women spoke, quite frankly,” said Burzichelli late Tuesday night by telephone, after taking what he said was a concession call from Durr.

According to the Associated Press, the Democrats won 25 seats in the 40-person Senate and 51 of the 80-person Assembly races to keep a majority they have held since 2004.

“This campaign moved women’s issues front and center,” Burzichelli said. “Those issues crossed over partisan lines and carried the day.”

In a handful of contested districts — spanning from Atlantic County’s Second to Gloucester’s Third, to Camden and Gloucester’s Fourth, Monmouth’s 11th, Hunterdon’s 16th, and Bergen’s 38th — hot-button cultural issues coursed through local races.

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New Jersey’s perennial campaign issue, affordability and high taxes, were again a statewide concern, but one on which Democrats may have held the upper hand.

Democrats held off Republican challengers in such key districts as the 11th in Monmouth County, where incumbent Democrat State Sen. Vin Gopal easily defended his seat against Stephen Dnistrian, a former health care executive.

In the Fourth District, Assemblyman Paul Moriarty, a former KYW investigative journalist, defeated Republican Chris Del Borrello, a former Washington Township councilman, in the race for State Senate. His running mates, Dan Hutchison and Cody Miller, won their Assembly races.

“We ran a race about affordability and what we’ve been doing as Democrats to make the state affordable for everyone, especially seniors,” Moriarty said Tuesday night, citing the ANCHOR tax relief program for homeowners and renters, and the StayNJ program, which will cut property taxes for seniors beginning in 2026. “I think that resonated with voters.”

He said women’s reproductive rights also played a part in this suburban South Jersey district as it has elsewhere. “That’s resonating not just in New Jersey, but across the country, even in deep red states,” he said.

The races were hard fought and expensive, as money flowed to candidates from political action committees.

A judge in Atlantic County last week blocked one of those PACs, Jersey Freedom, from spending any more money in the election and froze its bank accounts at the request of the New Jersey Republican Party.

The state GOP alleged that the dark money groupwas in fact run by Democrats promoting conservative Fourth District candidate Giuseppe Constanzo as a “ghost candidate,” to deceptively siphon support from Del Borrello. (Constanzo got 3% of the vote, not enough to make a difference.)

Meanwhile, in the 30th District in Monmouth County, a surprise late run of support in Lakewood for Democratic candidate Avi Schnall led to his win over Republican incumbent Ned Thomson.

Here’s a recap of the results from the districts that determined New Jersey’s legislative majority. Terms are two years in the Assembly. Senators serve four-year terms, except for the first term of a new decade, which is a two-year term.

Second District: This Atlantic County district has been all-Republican since former Atlantic City Mayor Don Guardian and Margate lawyer Claire Swift toppled Democrat-controlled Assembly seats in 2021. They won another term Tuesday night.

Second District State Sen. Vincent Polistina, a former assemblyman, held off a well-financed Democratic opponent, Atlantic County Commissioner Caren Fitzpatrick, who ran on issues of women’s health and reproductive rights, climate change action, and affordability issues in New Jersey.

Fitzpatrick is a supporter of the wind energy programs and was outraged by Orsted’s scrapping of its offshore wind turbine plans, which she blamed on an “ugly and deceitful public relations campaign by partisan Republican mouthpieces with ties to big oil.”

In turn, Polistina called the ads attacking him as “dangerous to women” a fraud. Polistina, Guardian and Swift stressed their bipartisan voting record and support of tax relief.

Guardian and Swift defeated Democrats Lisa Bender, a marine biologist, and Alphonso Harrell, a kindergarten teacher in Atlantic City and disabled veteran.

In the neighboring First District centered in Cape May and Cumberland Counties and a couple of Atlantic County towns, incumbent State Sen. Michael Testa and Assembly members Antwan McClellan and Erik Simonsen easily won reelection, solidifying the Republican stronghold in deep South Jersey.

Third District: Democrats were keen to erase their 2021 humiliation by regaining control of the Senate seat with Burzichelli. Durr’s comments about women dominated this race and others in South Jersey. The district covers part of Cumberland and Gloucester Counties and all of Salem County.

In the Assembly race, Republican incumbents Bethanne Patrick and Thomas Tedesco, a committee person in Hopewell Township, Cumberland County, also lost their seats, with the AP declaring Democrats Heather Simmons, a Rowan administrator, and Dave Bailey Jr., the CEO of Ranch Hope Inc., a children’s mental health services organization, the winners on Wednesday.

Fourth District: Democrats held the seats in this district in Camden and Gloucester Counties, but Republicans had been expected to make a strong run there, as the district was reconfigured to lean more Republican, and State Sen. Fred Madden is retiring.

But Moriarty, the former assemblyman, defeated Del Borrello in the Senate race and Democrats Dan Hutchison, a lawyer, and Cody Miller, an alumni relations director at Rowan, defeated Republicans Matthew Walker, a former Buena Borough council president, and Amanda Esposito, a public school teacher.

11th District: Democrat Gopal easily defended his state Senate seat in this split district against Dnistrian in what was considered to be a key target for Republicans. Republican Assembly incumbents Marilyn Piperno and Kim Eulner were defeated by Democrats Margie Donlon and Luanne Peterpaul.

Offshore wind has been a particular issue in this coastal district. And Monmouth County is the home to three school districts being sued by the Murphy administration over policies requiring parents be notified if support services are provided to transgender students.

16th District: Democratic incumbents Sen. Andrew Zwicker and Assemblyman Roy Freiman and newcomer Mitchelle Drullis in Hunterdon County defeated Republicans Mike Pappas, Ross Traphagen, and Grace Zhang. The Democrats talked about abortion, while Republicans/tried to center “extreme energy policy.”

38th District: School notification issues dominated this district in Bergen County, where Democrats were the incumbents, but Republicans saw some chances to make inroads. Democrats prevailed as State Sen. Joseph Lagana defeated Republican Micheline B. Attieh, a Paramus businesswoman. In the Assembly race, incumbent Democrats Lisa Swain and Chris Tully defeated Republicans Gail Horton and Barry C. Wilkes.