New Jersey Democrats have held onto control of both houses of the state Legislature — defeating some political observers’ expectations Republicans could take a majority in a chamber of the Legislature for the first time since 1999.
In the state Senate, Democrats maintained the same 25-15 majority they’d had going into the election, according to the Associated Press.
By just after 1 a.m., the AP had called 47 Assembly seats for Democrats and 27 for Republicans. That was already enough to slightly improve on the Democrats’ existing 46-34 advantage, even with another six seats yet to be called.
All 40 state Senate seats and all 80 Assembly seats were on the ballot.
“There’s a reason Democrats had a good night in New Jersey – in the face of cynical, bad-faith attacks from Republicans, Democrats ran disciplined races talking to working families about the issues they care about,” said Dan Bryan, a former spokesman for Gov. Phil Murphy and an adviser to both the Democratic state Senate and Assembly campaign committees.
Bryan said affordability, the economy, gun safety and protecting abortion rights were winning issues for Democrats up and down the state.
Many political observers believed Republicans would gain seats, or even potentially control of one chamber for the first time since 1999, citing the momentum of a parents’ rights movement that is seeking more control over school boards, concerns over high taxes and battles over Murphy’s ambitious climate change agenda.
This year, the parents’ rights movement was at the center of pitched battles over school policies, based on state guidance, that prohibit schools from outing transgender students to their parents in most cases. Some political analysts and Democratic strategists expected that to drive conservative parents to the polls.
Parents who began organizing against mask mandates in schools during the pandemic had since turned their attention to sex education and policies meant to protect LGBTQ…
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