In one of the most stunning political upsets New Jersey has ever seen, longtime state Senate President Stephen Sweeney has lost his latest re-election bid to a little-known Republican, according to a projection by the Associated Press on Thursday morning.
Sweeney, D-Gloucester — the second-most powerful elected state official after Gov. Phil Murphy — remained about 2,000 votes short against Edward Durr when the AP called the race shortly before 11:20 a.m. Thursday.
With 100% of precincts reporting, Durr, a commercial truck driver, led Sweeney 32,742 votes to 30,444 — 51.8% to 48.2%.
Sweeney has not conceded, saying not all votes have been counted in the battle for the Senate seat in South Jersey’s 3rd districts — a seat he’s held since 2002.
“The results from Tuesday’s election continue to come in,“ Sweeney said in a statement. “For instance, there were 12,000 ballots recently found in one county. 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.”
It’s unclear how many vote-by-mail or provisional ballots are left to be counted in the race, or if those would be enough for Sweeney to tip the balance.
N.J. ELECTION 2021: Local and state results
If the outcome holds, the loss would end the longest state Senate presidency in New Jersey history and will significantly alter the political landscape in the Garden State.
It comes as Republicans saw an unexpected groundswell of support in Tuesday’s elections despite Democrats having more than 1 million more registered voters than Republicans in New Jersey. Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy defeated Republican challenger Jack Ciattarelli by a razor-thin margin, according to the AP, and Republicans are poised to flip a number of seats in the Democratic-controlled state Legislature.
But no race was more surprising — or frankly, inconceivable — than Sweeney’s. No political insiders or pundits shared any concern about Sweeney losing his seat heading into the election.
“No one on God’s earth could have predicted that,” state Sen. Richard Codey, D-Essex, a former governor whom Sweeney ousted as Senate president 11 years ago.
A hulking 62-year-old union leader and iron worker, Sweeney has served as Senate president since 2010, helping guide Democrats’ agenda in the Legislature. In one of his most notable moments, Sweeney worked with then-Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican, to usher in bipartisan public-worker pension reforms that upset union leaders but sponsors say benefitted both workers and taxpayers.
Sweeney was expected to be chosen by Senate Democrats for a seventh term before this loss — and was projected to be a possible candidate for governor in 2025.
Now, he’s poised to be ousted from the Legislature, with his seat set to be filled by Durr, a 58-year-old conservative truck driver and lifelong New Jersey resident who has never held political office before and lost a bid for state Assembly in 2017.
Neither Sweeney nor Durr immediately returned messages seeking comment.
The election is set to alter the dynamics both in the Legislature and between lawmakers and the governor’s office. The Senate president decides what bills are voted on in the chamber and which of the governor’s nominees receive confirmation hearings.
In that respect, a Sweeney loss removes one of Murphy’s most consistent foes. Sweeney is a moderate and has often battled Murphy, a progressive, on legislation and other issues such as taxes, marijuana, and business tax credits. Many progressive advocates have often criticized Sweeney for not being liberal enough, while Sweeney has maintained New Jersey is more moderate.
Plus, this is a major blow to George Norcross, a childhood friend who is now a political power broker known for bankrolling candidates in South Jersey. Norcross’ powerful voting bloc will be left without a key pillar at the top of state government and could give more power to the central and northern parts of the state.
Sweeney rose to power at the same time Christie, Murphy’s Republican predecessor, came to power. Sweeney and Norcross formed a close bipartisan relationship with Christie, crafting those pension reforms and siding with each other in the state budget battle that led to a state government shutdown in 2017.
That same year, Sweeney fended off what was seen as a more serious challenge as the powerful New Jersey Education Association, the state’s largest teachers’ union, bankrolled Republican challenger Fran Grenier in an effort to oust the Senate president. The union had become a Sweeney opponent in the wake of the 2011 pension reforms.
That race ended up the costliest state legislative race in the U.S. history, at $24.1 million, according to the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission. But Sweeney won that race easily, beating Grenier by more than 9,300 votes, or 18 percentage points.
This time was different. Ironically, Sweeney is set to go down while Murphy eked out a win in an election that some Republicans and political observers say was a rebuke of the governor’s progressive politics as Republican voters turned out in larger waves that expected.
Political observers and insiders are largely baffled by Sweeney’s fall, though some note his district — which includes parts of the Philadelphia suburbs in Cumberland, Gloucester, and Salem counties — has shifted to be more right-leaning in recent years.
State Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg, D-Bergen — who is retiring this year — said there was “this underlying ‘I’m tired’ feeling among the voting public.”
“I’m tired of coronavirus, my kids not being able to be in school every day, tired of my high taxes,” Weinberg said. “This was their chance to answer it.”
As for Sweeney?
“I’m shocked, like everybody else is,” said Weinberg, the second-highest-ranking Democrat in the Senate after Sweeney. “I think many of my progressive friends who cheer the progressive legislation that Gov. Murphy signed are going to at one point wish they has Steve back.”
National Republicans are holding up the race as a voter reaction to both Murphy and Democratic President Joe Biden.
“Ed Durr has shocked New Jersey and the country in this week’s latest political upset,” said Rachel Lee, a spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee. “His election is both a referendum on Biden and Murphy’s extreme agenda and a stamp of approval on Republican’s commonsense, winning policies.”
Democrats are still expected to retain their control of both house of the Legislature, the Senate and Assembly, but their numbers are likely to shrink.
Currently, there are 25 Democrats in the 40-member Senate. But political insiders expect that number to shrink to 24 after all the votes are tallied. Many races remain too close to call.
Another question will be who succeeds Sweeney as Senate president. Insiders say a number of Democrats are already jockeying for the powerful post. Candidates include Sens. Paul Sarlo of Bergen County, Teresa Ruiz of Essex, Nick Scutari of Union, and Joe Cryan of Union.
“I think it is a tremendous shock to the New Jersey political system,” said Ben Dworkin, director of Rowan University’s Institute for Public Policy and Citizenship. “The Democratic leadership in the state is a delicate balance of power, especially in the Legislature. Sweeney was on the throne. So if the king is gone, lots of other people are going to be thinking they can be king.”
Also of note: While Senate seats usually carry four-year terms, the session will be for two years because the state is in the midst of legislative redistricting. Sweeney has a seat on the redistricting commission, and it’s possible he could stage a comeback in two years.
“Who knows? He didn’t retire like I’m retiring,” Weinberg said. “And he’s a lot younger than I am. He left the Senate with 24 senators, which is in pretty good shape. And he helped Phil Murphy get re-elected. I don’t know what will happen with redistricting.”
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Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @johnsb01.
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