New Jersey Senate President Stephen Sweeney was ousted by Edward Durr, a little known Republican candidate who spent next to nothing on his campaign.
For a bit, Sweeney held out hope that once all the legal votes were counted, he’d beat the commercial truck driver, but that didn’t pan out and he conceded this week.
During an interview with Durr, Fox News’s Tucker Carlson asked if he has actually spoken to Sweeney since the election results came out.
“Have you talked to Sweeney since you dethroned him? I mean, how baffled is he?” Carlson wondered.
“Yes, we had a phone conversation yesterday after he had given his press conference to the media and he congratulated me and just wished me luck to do well for South Jersey.”
Durr said he was a “gentleman” about it.
“And like I told him, I said, you know, if he ever needed anything just give me a call you know, because I’m his representative now,” Durr added.
Carlson burst out laughing. “That’s so great.”
Ed Durr on his conversation with Steve Sweeney who he just defeated:
— Benny (@bennyjohnson) November 12, 2021
“I just told him if he needed anything to give me a call, since I'm his representative now”
Tucker’s reaction is priceless pic.twitter.com/yJSFaq0ecV
The Republican State Leadership Committee called the results of New Jersey's Legislative District 3 "a political earthquake" given that Sweeney was the second most powerful Democrat in the state and the longest-serving president of New Jersey's Senate.
“He effectively was the king of the Senate," said Ben Dworkin, director of the Rowan Institute for Public Policy & Citizenship at Rowan University in Glassboro, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Durr has described his victory as one by the people for the people.
"I didn’t beat him. We beat him," Durr told Fox News. "The state of New Jersey, the people of New Jersey beat him. They listened to what I had to say and I listened to what they had to say, and it’s a repudiation of Governor Murphy [who] went and locked us down and ignored the people’s voice and senator Sweeney chose to do nothing for those 18 months."