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AMERICAN GREATNESS: Trucker Ed Durr’s NJ Victory Shows Dems Are Right to Be Worried

Republican New Jersey state senate candidate Ed Durr upset his Democratic opponent in Tuesday’s election, despite reportedly spending just $153 on his campaign.

SO WHAT

The New Jersey election results may be an even more ominous sign for the Democrats than the GOP victory in Virginia.

WHAT HAPPENED

Durr’s victory shocked political observers who assumed longtime incumbent Steve Sweeney’s seat in the reliably “blue” Garden State was safe.

On Thursday morning, the Associated Press called the race for Durr, a 58-year-old truck driver.

  • Durr spent just $153.31 of his $10,000 in campaign donations to unseat Sweeney, per a New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission report filed last week, local media reported.
  • “I didn’t beat him. We beat him,” Durr said during an appearance on “Fox News Primetime” Wednesday evening. “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 Gov. Murphy [who] went and locked us down and ignored the people’s voice and Sen. Sweeney chose to do nothing for those 18 months,” he added.

Durr has earned raves for the charmingly no-frills, grassroots authenticity of his campaign.

  • He had no website, his campaign video was shot on an iPhone by a friend’s nephew and half his campaign spend went toward a Dunkin’ Donuts order for his staffers.

THE VIRGINIA COMPARISON

“In New Jersey, Democrats are underperforming even worse [than in Virginia], by more than 15 points. It’s not just in the governor’s race, which many of you did not follow or cover,” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said at a press conference Wednesday, echoing some analysts. “The Senate Democrat president lost to a Republican who spent less than $200 on a campaign.”

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