Representative Jeff Van Drew, a close Republican ally of President Trump, has conceded his loss to Zack Mullock, the Democratic mayor of Cape May, in a South Jersey congressional district that has long been a conservative stronghold.
The Associated Press has not declared a winner in the race. But Mr. Mullock was leading Mr. Van Drew on Wednesday by about three percentage points, with more than 95 percent of the vote tallied.
Mr. Mullock, whose family owns and runs a hotel in the Jersey Shore resort town, competed for Mr. Van Drew’s Second District seat on a modest budget, emphasizing his hope to return to “normalcy and decency” in politics. His campaign had remained at a low boil until the final weeks of the race, when groups aligned with the Democratic Party began rushing to support him as they sensed an opportunity in a district that Mr. Trump won in 2024 by nearly 13 percentage points.
“Tonight, we proved something — that the dream of America is still alive,” Mr. Mullock told a room full of cheering supporters early Wednesday.
“For all of those who have been abused by this administration, to the immigrants who have been treated like terrorists, it is time to heal and go forward.”
It was a stunning change in fortune for Mr. Van Drew, who was re-elected two years ago by 17 points. He referred to the sweeping scope of Tuesday’s Democratic wins as more than a “normal wave election.”
“It kind of is a Watergate,” he said in a concession speech in Sea Isle City, N.J., about three hours after polls closed on Election Day. “Everything came together the wrong way.”
Still, he said he does not blame either the president or the House speaker, Mike Johnson.
“I made my decisions, and I stand by them,” said Mr. Van Drew, 73. “Sometimes life is bumpy and you have to man up. This is one of those moments.”
Mr. Van Drew, a retired dentist and a former state lawmaker, was first elected to Congress in 2018 as a Democrat. He joined the Republican Party the next year, after voting against Mr. Trump’s impeachment and pledging his “undying support” to the president in an appearance in the Oval Office. Soon after, Mr. Trump traveled to Mr. Van Drew’s district to hold a large rally in Wildwood, on the Jersey Shore.
The Second District includes upscale coastal communities as well as some of the state’s most rural counties. Residents in parts of the district have some of New Jersey’s lowest median incomes, leaving them especially vulnerable to the Trump administration’s signature policies, including the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill, which slashed Medicaid funding and food benefits and added new work requirements for recipients. Mr. Mullock, in a debate, stressed Mr. Van Drew’s support for the bill, which he said had increased health care costs for many of the congressman’s constituents.
South Jersey’s aquaculture and agriculture industries have been sharply affected by the high price of diesel, which reached an average of $6.36 this week in New Jersey, up from $3.64 a year ago, according to AAA. Opposition to a data center in Vineland that Mr. Van Drew initially supported had also become a bipartisan rallying cry.
Mr. Mullock, 41, said he had been motivated to run by the coarseness of politics during Mr. Trump’s second term, worried that his three children were growing up in a culture that had skewed the meaning of service.
“I see this idea of ‘macho’ meaning one-upping others,” Mr. Mullock said in an interview last week.
“I think what we need to get back to is caring for others and knowing that, yes, it’s manly to take care of others, to care for the sick, to care for the needy,” he added. “Those are American values that I think we need to get back to. And I do think that’s a bipartisan message.”
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