Republican state Sen. Ed Durr, the New Jersey trucker whose 2021 victory over longtime Democratic Senate President Steve Sweeney shocked the nation, was defeated Tuesday by former Assemblymember John Burzichelli.
The Associated Press called the race for the state’s 3rd District after midnight, showing the Democrat garnering 53.2 percent of the vote to Durr’s 46.8 percent.
Burzichelli, who chaired the Assembly Appropriations Committee for a decade, was ousted in 2021 along with Sweeney. In his comeback campaign, the Democrat targeted Durr for his anti-abortion stance and pro-gun positions, according to Politico New Jersey.
Durr, a truck driver, slipped under the political radar in 2021, surprising even himself when he ousted Sweeney, who had invested little in his reelection campaign and focused more on running for governor in 2025. Democrats back then did not use opposition research against Durr, like when he wrote on Facebook in 2020 about abortion that “Women do have a choice! Keep their legs closed.”
Democrats did not miss that opportunity in this election, seizing on the comments and spending heavily on TV advertisements and mailers attempting to tar other Republicans with them as well.
Democrat Gov. Phil Murphy congratulated Burzichelli on the victory.
Huge congrats to John Burzichelli on your upset win tonight flipping Legislative District 3!
— Phil Murphy (@PhilMurphy) November 8, 2023
The voters of South Jersey spoke loud and clear that they want a commonsense leader over a right-wing extremist.
Sweeney, meanwhile, told NJ Spotlight News that Tuesday's results felt like "a wrong has now been righted."
While Republicans in the Garden State had hoped to win a majority in either the Assembly or state Senate, Democratic victories across the state dashed those hopes Tuesday night.
“This is a big night for Democrats,” Murphy said.
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