We brought you the amazing story of Edward Durr, the truck driver in New Jersey who knocked off the seven-term incumbent, Democratic New Jersey Senate President Steve Sweeney, who had been in office since 2002, in a race in South Jersey’s 3rd district.
Durr excited the imagination that a blue collar, conservative guy who was disgusted at taxes and mandates could take down such an entrenched and powerful Democratic politician as Sweeney.
“It didn’t happen because of me. I’m nobody. I’m just a simple guy,” Durr said last week of the projected win. “It was a repudiation of the policies that have been forced down our throat, people told they can’t go to school, can’t go shopping. You cannot continue to tell people they can’t do things when we live in the freest country in the world.”
“I want this job. I don’t want all the fame, but I want this job,” Durr said. “I want to be the voice. I want to be somebody who can speak for the people. Because, one, I got a big mouth, so I like to make myself heard.”
So, Sweeney reached out to him and congratulated him on his win, right?
Not exactly. Sweeney is still refusing to concede as of this morning, despite the fact that Durr was declared the winner on Thursday, with 32,742 votes for Durr to 30,444 for Sweeney.
“The results from Tuesday’s election continue to come in, for instance there were 12,000 ballots recently found in one county,” Sweeney said in an email to the Philadelphia Inquirer on Thursday. “While I am currently trailing in the race, we want to make sure every vote is counted. Our voters deserve that, and we will wait for the final results.”
Sweeney’s office did not immediately respond to Fox News’ request for comment on the matter, specifically on identifying which South Jersey county recently found the ballots.
As far as we can tell, there isn’t any question about the counties involved in Sweeney’s district — Cumberland, Gloucester, and Salem counties. It’s not clear what he’s talking about with the “12,000 ballots” comment. Given the number of votes in that race, 12,000 votes aren’t going to just drop out of the air there for Sweeney. However, there is still one more day for the mail-in ballots to come in. Nov. 8 is the cut-off. They have to be postmarked the day of the election. So, he could still get some more votes, as could Durr.
Let’s hope there aren’t any magical ballots that are “found” at the last moment that just manage to make up the difference between the two. If he goes past tomorrow without any real reason or argument to hang his hat on, he’s going to be on a Stacey Abrams/Hillary Clinton “attacking democracy” track. But, he knows he lost. He just doesn’t want to let those reins of power go yet.
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