Democrats held on to the New Jersey state Senate in the 2023 statewide elections Tuesday, dashing Republican hopes it could flip the Garden State red.
The state’s Democratic Party successfully fended off Republican challengers by wielding the issue of abortion, which resonated with New Jersey’s heavily pro-abortion rights electorate, against Republicans’ promotion of economic issues and parental rights.
At 12.27 a.m., Democrats had been declared the victor in 23 of the 40 seats, with just four undecided.
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Both parties made concerted efforts to increase early voting turnout and use of absentee voting ahead of the traditionally low-turnout races.
While the state has enjoyed a Democratic trifecta for the last several years, controlling both chambers of the legislature and the governorship, it wasn’t guaranteed by any means.
In 2021, Gov. Phil Murphy (D-NJ) narrowly held on to the governorship against challenger Jack Ciattarelli, 51.2% to 48%. While Murphy ultimately prevailed, Republicans had significant wins, gaining seven seats in the state legislature. In the state GOP’s most successful night in decades, candidates managed to pick up six seats in the General Assembly and one in the state Senate. However, they remained under Democratic control.
In 2023, the party felt poised to make similar advances, leveraging the issues of parental rights, the state Democrats’ climate agenda, and the economy. Parental rights and transgenderism in schools in New Jersey has quickly become a hot-button issue, with several schools attempting to enact policies to keep parents informed of changes being made to accommodate their child’s gender identity. However, Murphy’s administration has moved to sue these school districts over the policies.
Murphy’s agenda to address climate change suffered a huge blow last week when Danish company Orsted canceled a multibillion-dollar plan for two wind farms off New Jersey’s coast. Murphy vowed to keep fighting to build the wind turbines, though.
Despite Democratic commitment to pushing the wind turbine projects in New Jersey, new polling showed public support for the plans fell from 80% to 50% in the last four years. While 15% were opposed to them in 2019, that number has grown to 33%.
Further, Republicans felt confident on economic issues going into Tuesday’s elections. Both the state and federal leaders presiding over New Jersey’s current economy are from the Democratic Party, putting them at a disadvantage. In recent polling, people have indicated significantly higher trust in Republicans over Democrats to handle the economy and improve it, as opposed to Democrats.
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Democrats had to contend with voter apathy due to the decreasing approval of both Murphy and President Joe Biden. In August, Murphy saw a decline in his approval rating and a rise in his disapproval rating. His approval fell from 57% in 2022 to 50%, and his disapproval rose to 40% from 35% in 2022. However, he still maintained the approval of half of respondents, which is more than could be said for Biden.
The same month, Biden posted his worst approval and disapproval numbers in New Jersey since taking office, with 41% to 52%, respectively.
