Former state Sen. Ed Durr joins crowded race for New Jersey governor

South Jersey truck driver Ed Durr upended New Jersey politics in 2021 when he toppled one of the state’s most powerful politicians, then-Senate President Steve Sweeney, and won a seat in the state Senate.

Now, Durr — a Trump-loving Republican known as “Ed the Trucker” who served one term before a better-funded Democrat took back the seat last fall — is angling for another upset, and he’s aiming even higher. He announced Monday he’ll run for governor.

“We are in a crisis. New Jersey is broken. Our government is broken. We are financially broken, and we are morally broken,” Durr told supporters at New Life Assembly in Egg Harbor Township.

The announcement got a long round of applause, cheers, and whistles at the event, which focused on school boards, books, and curriculum and where signs around the church stage read: “TEACH ABC NOT SEX” and “YOUR CHILDREN DO NOT BELONG TO THE STATE.” As a senator, Durr introduced legislation, which did not advance, that would have prohibited school districts from teaching students in kindergarten through sixth grade about sexual orientation or gender identity and required parental consent on such instruction for older students.

Tuesday, Durr told the New Jersey Monitor that he decided to run “for the people.”

“Our state needs somebody to fight for them,” Durr said. “You got so many people out there saying they want to run, but what I see is they’re running for themselves. I’m running for the people. I don’t care about the fame and the fortune, all that stuff that people worry about. I’m fine with how I am. I’m a plain, simple guy. But the state needs to be turned around, and I know that I would do that.”

Durr joins an increasingly crowded race in a gubernatorial election that’s still 539 days away.

Three other Republicans already have announced plans to run — state Sen. Jon Bramnick, real estate broker Robert Canfield, and Jack Ciattarelli, who came close to ousting Gov. Phil Murphy in 2021.

If Durr can beat them, he could face Sweeney again at the ballot box. Sweeney, a Democrat, announced in December he would run for governor, and Democrats Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop also have declared bids for the seat.

Durr, arguably, is the most right-leaning candidate so far.

In a 7-minute speech at the Egg Harbor church, he hit many conservative talking points, blasting school policies on transgender athletes, sex ed in schools, rising taxes and budgets, gun control, offshore wind, and criminal justice policies that “handcuff” law enforcement officers. He also denounced Murphy’s pandemic response, including the mandate that many public workers get “an experimental and controversial COVID shot.”

Still, he told the New Jersey Monitor he’s weary of the “labels” his views have gotten him.

“I believe in the Constitution,” he said. “I have a lot of libertarian natures in me. I want everybody to just live and let live. And I believe in small government, so yes, I’m conservative. But I’m also open-minded, and I agree with people having a right to say and do what they want to do.”

Durr has returned to Trenton since his term ended in January to speak out against a bill that would lower the age from 16 to 14 that teenagers can seek mental health care without parental consent. He plans to testify against another bill, if it comes up for a hearing, that would standardize library book challenges in New Jersey and protect librarians from harassment, criminal charges, and lawsuits.

Parental rights remain a priority for him, as does affordability, he said.

Durr, 60, of Logan, said he’s running for his three grown children and five grandchildren, all of whom live in New Jersey. As a trucker, he explained, he can live anywhere.

“But I want to stay and fight for my kids and my grandkids and everybody else’s families and futures, because I’m tired of hearing about so many families having to move out of the state and being separated from their loved ones because the taxes are so high they can’t afford to stay,” he said.