NJ election 2023: Here are the New Jersey Legislature seats Democrats took from the GOP
Most ballots have been counted and New Jersey’s legislative map is now bluer than it was already.
The current legislative roster has 15 Republicans and 25 Democrats in the state Senate, and 34 Republicans and 46 Democrats in the General Assembly.
Those numbers changed Tuesday to 14 Republicans and 26 Democrats in the Senate, and 29 Republicans and 51 Democrats in the General Assembly.
Here are the seats that flipped in Trenton:
NJ Senate and Assembly 3rd legislative district
Former Assemblyman John Burzichelli, D-Gloucester, took home a victory for Democrats in South Jersey after defeating Ed Durr, R-Gloucester, the Associated Press projects.
Durr, a truck driver, suddenly rose to fame in 2021 when he unseated the then-Senate President Steve Sweeney, a Democrat who had been a senator for the 3rd legislative district since 2002.
The year before he was elected, Durr wrote on Facebook about abortion saying “Women do have a choice! Keep their legs closed.” Unlike in 2021, when he was largely ignored, this time Democrats focused on the abortion topic in a campaign of TV advertisements and mailers against Durr.
“I am thankful that the voters in the 3rd district recognize the need to vote for people who believe in respecting women and believe in respecting a woman’s right to choose,” Sweeney said in a statement Wednesday.
Gloucester County Commissioner Heather Simmons and Dave Bailey Jr., CEO of the faith-based nonprofit Ranch Hope, reclaimed both of the assembly seats Democrats lost two years ago.
NJ’s 3rd legislative district covers Salem County, most of Gloucester County and parts of Cumberland County.
NJ Assembly 11th legislative district
Democrats Margie Donlon, a physician who currently serves as deputy mayor of Ocean Township, and former county prosecutor Luanne Peterpaul of Long Branch were elected to the Assembly, defeating Republican incumbents Marilyn Piperno and Kim Eulner.
The Assembly seats of the 11th legislative district was been held by Republican legislators from 1992 through 2015, when Democrats Joann Downey and Eric Houghtaling took them. They in turn were defeated by Piperno and Eulner two years ago.
In that 2021 race, state Sen. Vin Gopal, D-Monmouth, first elected in 2017, held onto his seat by just a couple thousand votes. This time he defeated his Republican challenger by over 11,000 votes.
The 11th legislative district covers a portion of Monmouth County, a traditionally Republican territory, but it includes Democratic bastions such as Long Branch, Red Bank, Asbury Park, Neptune and Freehold Borough.
NJ Assembly 30th legislative district
The flip of the night happened in the 30th legislative district, one of the reddest in the state.
On Tuesday, Avi Schnall defeated Republican incumbent Edward Thomson and became the first Democrat to win a seat in the deep-red district in the past three decades. It came after the Vaad, the influential group of Orthodox Jewish leaders in Lakewood, endorsed Schnall, who is Orthodox.
The 30th legislative district covers a portion of Monmouth County, where Schnall lost by some 8,000 votes. But the district also covers Lakewood, an Ocean County township where Schnall won by some 18,000 votes. This happened three years after 82% of Lakewood voted for former President Donald Trump, a Republican.
Election Day 2023: Democrats retain control in Brick; Rabbi Avi Schnall wins
This is not the first time that the Vaad backed a Democrat, having done so for Gov. Phil Murphy in 2017.
Schnall is the director of Agudath Israel of America, a leading advocacy group for Orthodox Jews. He is also the first Orthodox Jew from Lakewood to win a seat in New Jersey’s Legislature.
This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: NJ Legislature 2023 election: Democrats gain six seats
