Democrats flip two GOP-held NJ seats on Nov. 3, leaving one Republican in delegation

“This is going to be one of the greatest rebukes of a sitting president in the history of the United States of America,” Cory Booker told supporters at the Hasbrouck Heights Hilton on election night, as the votes were still being counted. The next morning, ROI-NJ reported, the numbers bore him out: Democrats flipped two Republican-held congressional seats in New Jersey on Nov. 3, leaving the Garden State’s 12-member delegation with just one Republican remaining.

The wave that carried the party also swept in Rebecca Bennett, a health care executive and former Navy helicopter pilot, who defeated two-term Rep. Tom Kean Jr. by 16 percentage points in the 7th Congressional District. Kean, a scion of one of New Jersey’s prominent political families, had held the seat through three swings of control since 2018. “This is the moment we begin to turn the page on the Trump era,” Bennett told supporters at the Bridgewater Manor in Bridgewater. “We are demanding an end to the vast corruption in D.C. and a focus on actually solving our problems.”

In South Jersey’s 2nd District, Zack Mullock, the two-term mayor of Cape May, a business owner and a former PGA golf professional, unseated Jeff Van Drew, the Democrat-turned-Republican who had crossed the aisle to join the GOP. Gov. Mikie Sherrill, speaking at Mullock’s campaign headquarters at the Chalfonte Hotel in Cape May, took particular pleasure in the symmetry. “Jeff Van Drew and I came into a Congress on a blue wave (in 2018), and now he’s leaving on a blue wave,” she said.

Mullock framed the win as the voters’ doing, not his own. “This was not my campaign, it was your campaign,” he told the crowd. “This was a district we weren’t supposed to win. A lot of people felt their voices were being unheard. Believe me tonight, your voices are heard.”

Booker’s own race was never in serious doubt. The former mayor of Newark, first elected to the Senate in a 2013 special election following the death of Sen. Frank Lautenberg, defeated Republican Justin Murphy and three other candidates to secure a third full term. He is believed to be considering a run for president in 2028. “I said from the beginning of this election, this election is not about right or left, it’s about right and wrong,” Booker said.

The shift leaves Rep. Chris Smith of the 4th District as the sole Republican in New Jersey’s congressional delegation. Smith held his seat against Democrat Rachel Peace. Every other district stayed or went Democratic: Donald Norcross beat Damon Galdo in the 1st; Herb Conaway defeated Michael McGuire and three others in the 3rd; Josh Gottheimer beat Sean Kirrane and Adam Rueda in the 5th; Frank Pallone defeated Hillary Herzig in the 6th; Rob Menendez prevailed in the 8th; Nellie Pou won the 9th; LaMonica McIver took the 10th; Analilia Mejia won the 11th; and Adam Hamawy captured the 12th.

The map now reads almost entirely blue — and the man who will represent New Jersey in the Senate for six more years says the message was never partisan. “It’s about right and wrong,” Booker said.

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