Edward Durr, a commercial truck driver for 25 years, unseated in the Nov. 2 election the long-tenured New Jersey Senate president, according to unofficial election results published by New Jersey Herald.
Durr claimed that he spent less than $10,000 on his campaign, according to Politico.
To his surprise, Durr, a Republican, won 52 percent of the votes defeating New Jersey Senate President Stephen Sweeney in the District 3 Senate race. His grassroots campaign included knocking on doors to introduce himself to voters, reported NJ.com.
“The funny thing is, whenever I went around door-to-door, everybody, the first words out of their mouth was ‘Good luck;’ like they knew the political power that was being wielded down here,” Durr, 58, told Fox 29 Philadelphia in an interview.
“We need people who understand the adverse effects of what’s going on in this state,” he said.
“The Senate President has spent 20 years in Trenton,” Durr said in his campaign video. “Higher taxes, increasing debt, and the rising cost of living; we deserve better. New Jersey, it’s time for a change.”
“Let’s end single-party rule,” he added.
Sweeney, 62, has been the Senate president since 2010 and has served as a New Jersey senator since 2002.
“I believe in God. I am hard-working, trusting, and very loyal. I believe in fiscal responsibility, transparency, and lower taxes,” Durr, who considers himself a “ blue-collar” said in his campaign. He also is a supporter of the 2nd Amendment.
Durr advocated a tax reform claiming that taxes, including property taxes, are a big problem in New Jersey.
“We have taxed the people to the verge of death. Many people have decided to move out of a state they lived in all their life. I feel we must reduce taxes across the board, along with [reducing] government,” the trucker said.
The Epoch Times reached out to Durr’s campaign for comment.
Durr’s entire district in Southern New Jersey turned Republican as two Democratic Assemblymen were also defeated by two Republican women in the Nov. 2 election: Bethanne McCarthy Patrick, a firefighter/EMT, and realtor Beth Sawyer, according to unofficial returns for the New Jersey election.
New Jersey Legislative Races
All 120 seats in New Jersey’s Legislature were on the ballot in this year’s election. Many precincts are still expected to report the results of the legislative election.
The unofficial results in districts that completed their reporting at the time of publication showed that Republicans unseated one senator and six assembly members. One vacant seat in the state Senate was also won by a Republican.
Coming into election day, Democrats had controlled the Assembly with 52 seats to Republicans’ 28. In the Senate, Democrats had 25 seats to the Republicans’ 15.
New Jersey’s Legislature consists of 40 districts, which each sends one senator and two assembly members to Trenton, the state’s capital. Assembly members serve two-year terms, while senators serve four-year terms, except for the first election after the census—which comes this year—when they serve two-year terms.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Correction: The amount of money spent on Durr’s campaign has been corrected. The Epoch Times regrets the error.
Sweeney wasn’t well liked by the Progressives (Socialists) in the Democrat Party, so they didn’t concentrate on ensuring he would be re-elected. All through Murphy’s first term, the Progressives viewed Sweeney as a roadblock to allowing even more of Murphy’s destructive policies to be enacted. So-called moderate Democrats are a rapidly dying breed here in NJ, as well as through the rest of the Northeast. So the Progressives, which account for most of the Democrat votes didn’t support him. Thus Sweeney lost to a guy who spent a grand total of $153 dollars on his campaign. Can’t say I’m upset to see any Democrat go for any reason. Just wish they would all lose their seats in similar fashion.
Now Murphy on the other hand is where the Progressives went all in. As of yesterday morning the Republican challenger was up by about 1,000 votes. Then, as usual in the one remaining Democrat stronghold yet to be fully counted (there is always one Democrat stronghold that manages to need extra time to tally the votes…just in case the vote is close), we began to see votes suddenly coming in for Murphy. This went back and forth all day long on Wednesday. Whenever the Republican was up by a few hundred votes, suddenly another batch of votes appeared for Murphy. Just enough to give him a lead. As of this moment the vote counting is still going on, yet the AP has decided to call the election for Murphy. So NJ continues its strong tradition of “magic, last minute ballots” that just happen to only favor Democrats.
P.S.
For those interested, Project Veritas dropped another video last night showing a NJ poll worker giving a ballot to someone who admits he isn’t a registered voter or a U.S. citizens (he’s a citizen of Ireland) so he could vote this week. The same unregistered, non-citizen also admitted he voted in 2020 as well. Yet we continue to hear from Democrats that our elections are all completely secure and that voter fraud is a myth. What a country.
Let’s go Brandon!