Republicans win Sussex County elections, but data shows gap is closing

While the blue wave in the Nov. 3 elections did not extend to traditionally red Sussex County, the results in countywide and regional races exemplified a recent local trend in which the gap between Republicans and Democrats continues to narrow.

Approximately 52% of Sussex voted for Republican Justin Murphy in his unsuccessful bid to unseat Cory Booker in the Senate, according to unofficial results on the county clerk's website . Just over 50% chose Sean Kirrane, who lost to incumbent Josh Gottheimer in the race for New Jersey's 5th Congressional District.

Perhaps the most notable result came from the 7th District, where neither Republican incumbent Thomas Kean Jr. nor Democrat Rebecca Bennett received a majority of votes from Sussex County residents. Both earned roughly 49% of the total, and preliminary figures showed Kean, who lost the race , ahead by just 35 votes in the county.

Republicans did win both county races, albeit by much smaller margins than usual. Incumbent Jack DeGroot retained his county commissioner seat over Phil DeStefano with 55% of the vote, the largest gap of any non-municipal contested race, while Commissioner Chris Carney received 54% of votes in the race for county clerk over Clare Golden.

DeGroot's win was the closest commissioner race in Sussex County since 2018, when then-newcomers Dawn Fantasia and Josh Hertzberg won seats on the board with a combined 62% of residents' votes . The turnout for Republican commissioner candidates or teams exceeded 70% in three of the previous four elections before this year.

The Sussex County Democratic Committee lauded the latest figures in a Facebook post , saying that even getting DeStefano and Golden above 40% of the vote "would have been cause for celebration." The fact that both reached 45% was "a victory for all Democrats in Sussex County."

"Democrats across the country are witnessing historic victories," said SCDC Chair Zoe Heath, "and Sussex County played our part — delivering a historic margin for Rebecca Bennett and our local races — setting us up for future success in 2027."

The Sussex County Education Association also noted the closing gap on Facebook the morning after the election. The agency celebrated the victories of Bennett, Booker and Gottheimer, each of whom was backed by the New Jersey Education Association and won with the help of Sussex voters.

"The energy across Sussex County was electric!" the post read. "The dedication, organizing, and hard work of so many people supporting candidates who stand with public education and public educators was remarkable."

Other regional results in 2024 and 2025 saw Republicans secure at least 58% of the Sussex County vote in every race. That includes the most recent presidential election, where 61% of voters selected Donald Trump for a second presidential term and 37% voted for Kamala Harris.

The 2024 results in Sussex County included 36% of residents voting for current Democrat Sen. Andy Kim and 39% for Gottheimer. Sue Altman, another Democrat, had 37% of the vote in the 7th District in a losing effort to Kean.

In last year's election , Mikie Sherrill earned 41% of Sussex votes as she won the governor's race over Republican Jack Ciattarelli. In the battle for two 24th District Assembly seats, Democrats Steve Barratt and Eugene Grinberg combined for 38% of the vote in a loss to Fantasia and Mike Inganamort.

While Sussex Democrats are feeling optimistic about the future, at least one expert feels it is too early to make any long-term predictions statewide based on the 2026 election results.

"We like to say that in New Jersey, if you've seen one election, you've seen one election," said Micah Rasmussen, director of the Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics at Rider University. "I don't think we can do any more generalizing than we could if we were looking at President Trump's much closer performance in New Jersey in the 2024 election."

Indeed, Trump received 41% of the popular vote in New Jersey as the incumbent facing Joe Biden in 2020, according to Politico . In 2024, that percentage had jumped to 46% against Harris.

Other historically red New Jersey counties saw the same narrow margins in the latest election, Rasmussen said. For example, ousted 2nd District Rep. Jeff Van Drew won Ocean County, which voted for Trump in the past two presidential elections, by just 7,374 votes after the margin was nearly 22,000 two years ago.

"What that really tells us — beyond the wave," Rasmussen said, "is that the electorate will be much different in a presidential election than a non-presidential election."

This article has been updated because an earlier version included an inaccuracy.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Republicans win Sussex County elections, but data shows gap is closing