Libbing out

There’s no other way to say it. Election night 2026 was a steady stream of “holy sh*t” moments from right after polls closed until well into this morning.

From Rebecca Bennett trouncing Tom Kean Jr. by 16 points to Zack Mullock ousting Jeff Van Drew to Democrats cleaning up in countywide races in Monmouth and Morris counties, of all places, New Jersey Democrats had the best night of their lives on Tuesday, leaving poor Chris Smith as the lone GOP member of our House delegation.

And that was just New Jersey. Democrats won governor’s races in places like Ohio and Texas, grabbed U.S. Senate seats in both those ruby red states plus in South Carolina and in Kansas, finally ended Susan Collins’ career in Maine, and elsewhere won seats that Republicans have basically owned for decades or longer. A true rout for the GOP. Even the 2010 Dem wipeout during Barack Obama’s first term didn’t feel like this; last night had 1994 vibes.

More: Our state’s swingiest district, the 7th, has flipped back and forth between Republican and Democratic control three times now since 2018, with Bennett the latest victor. She told a jubilant crowd of supporters in Bridgewater last night that she sees Tuesday’s results as the beginning of the end for the man in the White House. “This is the moment we begin to turn the page on the Trump era!” she said, per our own Dana DiFilippo. Kean was at the Olde Mill Inn in Basking Ridge, but would not let reporters in. David Brand from Gothamist was outside and wrote, “Attendees now leaving describe it as ‘somber,’ ‘depressing,’ ‘kinda grim’ and ‘like a bad date - you know it’s gonna end but you don’t know when.’” I doubt it was even that good.

South Jersey: NJ PBS asked me to come on yesterday afternoon to talk about what I think would happen, and I said I thought Jeff Van Drew would lose in South Jersey only if Tuesday were a cataclysm for Republicans. Welp, turns out it was, and the longtime lawmaker and Dem-turned-Republican lost to Cape May Mayor Zack Mullock, whose campaign was so bare-bones it had Gov. Mikie Sherrill standing on a folding chair during a get-out-the-vote rally on Monday. “I am so humbled, I can’t believe this is happening,” Mullock told supporters. “This is all about you. I think you all know I couldn’t have done this without you. We didn’t have enough money to do it without you. This was a grassroots campaign and I cannot thank you enough.”

To his credit, Van Drew didn’t drag this out like by pulling a Steve Sweeney, who famously lost reelection to the state Senate in 2021 but spent days pretending there were ballots out there that would put him over the top. Van Drew conceded before the AP even called the race — it still hasn’t — and put the blame on himself. “Sometimes life is bumpy. It’s not always easy, and you have challenges before you, and you can’t blame other people for that,” he said. “I’m not going to blame Donald Trump. I’m not going to blame the speaker. I’m not going to blame anybody. I made decisions in my life, and I’m proud of them.”

Elsewhere: The rest of New Jersey’s federal races went as expected. U.S. Sen. Cory Booker won reelection and the rest of Dems’ House delegation won, too. Adam Hamawy (D), a plastic surgeon, captured the 12th District House seat now held by a retiring Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman. Booker is widely expected to seek the White House in 2028, and his victory speech last night had a he’s-coming-for-you-America tone. “If there’s anything we’re seeing in America right now, it is a wave of change going through our nation, and mark my words: Results are not in, but this is going to be one of the greatest rebukes of a sitting president in the history of the United States of America,” he said.

But: There was an interesting result out of Arizona, where voters were asked to approve a ballot measure to bar trans girls from girls youth sports and girls bathrooms and locker rooms at schools. Even on a great night for Arizona Democrats — the Dem governor and AG handily won reelection — this ballot measure won 59% of the vote. Republicans overall were not successful in using this issue to punish Democratic politicians at the polls, but this remains an area where many Dems are out of step with the average voter. Just something to think on.