A MAGA trucker upended New Jersey politics in 2021. Can he do it again? 

WEST DEPTFORD, New Jersey — In 2021, South Jersey was home to one of the largest upsets in New Jersey political history: An unknown truck driver with a shoestring budget ousted the state’s longest-serving Senate president .

Now that truck driver, Ed Durr, is hoping to pull off another upset: Rolling into the governor’s office.

Durr is among the four major GOP candidates running to be New Jersey’s next governor. His 2021 victory attracted national attention, especially from conservatives: A blue-collar, Trump-loving trucker took on the top elected official of the state’s vaunted South Jersey political machine and won. Former President Donald Trump called Durr to congratulate him.

Durr spent only one two-year term in Trenton, where he was best known for pushing conservative causes, like bills to scale back abortion rights and loosen gun laws. But none of his bills — even his less partisan ones — became law. He lost his 2023 reelection bid to a Democrat.

A Durr administration would be a conservative departure from Gov. Phil Murphy’s. In a June interview with POLITICO in a South Jersey diner, Durr said he looked to the Dakotas and Florida as models for governance. And affordability — a perennial issue in this high-cost state — is “the major issue” facing New Jersey, he said.

“We are dying in the state because of the affordability problem,” Durr said. “People can't afford to live here. They can't afford to raise a family here.”

Durr faces a tough path ahead. His GOP opponents have higher statewide name recognition or fundraising abilities. While the state leans Democratic, many Trenton observers think Republicans could have a good shot to win back the governor’s office after eight years of Democratic rule. Durr, however, could be vulnerable in a general election because of his more conservative beliefs (the district he lost in 2023 is much more Republican than the state as a whole and would have voted for Trump in 2020).

Still, Durr is confident in pursuing his conservative agenda for New Jersey, regardless of the consequences.

“I will do what is right for New Jersey, even if it means I would be tossed in the next four years,” he said. “Because I wouldn't care. I would do what's right, and not be owned by anybody. “

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Now that you’re campaigning for governor, going around the state, do you plan to continue trucking?

Yes, I'm going to continue. ... One of the advantages I have with my driving is my hours allow me to do my job, get home and then go do events and stuff and campaign. Because I head out early. So I'm just going to be having very long days — 20-hour days and 4-hour sleep.

Why are you still trucking?

I live in New Jersey, I'm not a millionaire and I gotta make ends meet. I mean, until I have a million dollars in my bank account and I don't have to work, I'm going to continue to work. I like to drive. It's always been something I've enjoyed. That's why I’ve done it for 30 years.

Although if your governor perhaps, can't do both of those things at the same time.

Possibly (chuckles). You can always drive on the weekends.

You lost your Senate seat in 2023. You represented a district that is more conservative than what the state is at large. I believe your district would have voted for Trump. So how would you in a general election attract more centrist voters or even Democrats?

Well, I think once everybody gets to know me much better and sees I'm not this hard extremist that they portray me to be. I'm actually kind of very open minded. I have a very libertarian streak in me. I call myself a conservatarian. Kind of conservative and have libertarian natures. I believe in less government, smaller government, but I also believe in freedom and ... live and let live.

You said you're not an “extremist” of any kind. I feel like you’re often referred to as a MAGA Republican, or a more conservative Republican. Do you agree with those characterizations?

Do I want America to be great? Yes, I want America to be great again. I don't mind MAGA as much. But the problem with that is they label it as you’re a racist or you're an anti-this or an anti-that. That is one of the drawbacks. When people hear MAGA, they automatically come to white supremacist. ... Some kind of extremist. That's not the way it is.

Are you seeking Trump's endorsement in the Republican primary?

I absolutely will want to get his endorsement. I believe it can't hurt, can only help. And if I'm fortunate enough to have it, I'll be happy. If I don't get it, it doesn't change my view that I'm still going to run.

Do you think that the 2020 election was stolen and are you willing to accept the results of the 2024 election?

Joe Biden is the president. He was sworn in office in January 2021. I don't deny the fact that he's president. Do I think there was something wrong with the 2020 elections? Absolutely.

A lot of the bills that you did introduce when you were a senator — at least, the ones that got a lot of attention — were generally for more conservative causes. I'm thinking about some of your measures that you introduced on guns and abortion. So what are some issues that you would try to tackle with the (Democrat-controlled) Legislature and how would you approach doing that without having to concede some of your conservative beliefs?

Well, I think you brought up abortion. If you look at my bill on abortion , people try to say I'm an anti-abortionist. But personally, I don't agree with abortion.

But my bill actually allows for abortion, because I don't believe the government should be telling people what they can and can't do. But I do think we went to the extreme in New Jersey on abortion. I think if you poll this state , 70 to 80 percent of the people do not agree with 7-, 8-, 9-month abortions, because that just seems cruel. And I think we should scale it back. I don't think that the population agrees with abortion-on-demand for illegal aliens coming here and just getting their abortions when somebody living paycheck to paycheck can't afford their abortion. So it does seem out of place.

So there's different things but again, I think [the] major issue is affordability. Lower the taxes, bringing in jobs, businesses. We are losing good companies, and all I see is a bunch of warehouses going up and no manufacturing. We need manufacturing.

The bill that you introduced would have prohibited [abortion] in most instances after 12 weeks , correct?

Except for emergencies and allow for rape and incest [exceptions].

Would you still pursue the 12-week prohibition if you're governor?

I would pursue what I could scale back on the extreme. We're already at the extreme. Whatever I can get back I will take. If it was six months, I would be happy to get to six months. The thing with government is it's about compromise. Nobody gets everything they want, or shouldn't get everything they want.

Something adjacent to abortion rights: there's been a lot of conversation around in vitro fertilization, and I believe very recently, some conservative-leaning Christian groups actually came out in opposition to IVF . There's been a lot of debate over it and talk about in Congress. Do you think that access to IVF should be scaled back in the state?

I don't think the government should have any say in it, period. Because I think that's still a personal, moral thing. I don't think the government should be deciding whether it should be or shouldn't be.

Does that line of thinking also go along with something like access to contraception?

I would rather somebody have contraceptives than have an abortion. So I don't believe in restricting contraceptives because that at least stops abortions. And anybody who's against abortion should be in favor of contraceptives.

During your 2023 race, Democratic groups really went after you over Facebook posts that you made in 2020 that said ‘A woman does have a choice. Keep her legs closed .’ Do you regret making those comments?

I'm a different person than I was five years ago. Hell, I'm a different person than I was a year ago.

That was a one-on-one argument — even though it was on Facebook, it was still a one-on-one argument with myself and an individual. And it got heated.

I regret saying that and apologize, but it doesn't take away from what the argument was, that I believe the best way to prevent an abortion is abstinence.

This was a discussion about women having abortion as birth control. And I think that it's one thing to have an abortion because you have to prevent a rape pregnancy or incest pregnancy. That’s one thing. But just because you didn't get contraceptives to prevent yourself from getting pregnant, so you're just gonna do it the quickie way? … Like I said, I owned up to it and apologized for it. But it doesn't change the fact that I'm still going to be pro-life. I’m never going to apologize for being pro-life.

What is the earliest you would want to get to [on scaling back abortion access]? Because your bill was 12 weeks. Would you want to go further than 12 weeks? Further back?

What do you mean? Like like six weeks, like Florida?

Yeah.

No, no. Again, this is about government interfering. Personally, I would never partake in it. You know, that was my personal choice. I've made no secrets that I got my girlfriend pregnant when she was 19 and I was 20. And we decided to have the child. I don't regret it whatsoever, but it was never a question whether we were going to have the kid or not.

So that's my personal belief, but my personal belief should not be yours.

Speaking of things that are up to different states. Gov. Murphy, very famously said early in his first term that he wanted to make New Jersey the California of the East Coast. I can see that you're rolling your eyes right now and chuckling. Are there any states that you look to as a model for governance for New Jersey that you want to emulate as governor?

I think there's a lot of states that have a lot of great things going on in them. I saw somebody going postal on social media saying I want to make New Jersey Florida. I don't see a problem with that. I think Florida's doing pretty good, other than the floods that are going on right now, but that's just natural.

[In] Florida, they have a surplus and their taxes are great. Well, you see everybody moving out in New York and going to Florida because of the taxes. So yeah, states like that, like North Dakota, South Dakota, they’re run pretty good.

What are some of the policies of Florida, North Dakota, South Dakota that you approve of?

Business tax, income tax, freedom to let businesses grow. We are drowning in regulations in this state.

The regulations and requirements and licensing in this state is killing small entrepreneur businesses, and I would like to see that scaled back, because that will open up growth.

It's a very simple thing. What will help New Jersey? Well, let's see, if we had more businesses come here, that brings more jobs, that brings more workers to provide income. Jersey gets more revenue out of the income tax. Seems pretty simple-minded, you know, right? But we're doing everything backwards and chasing them all out.

You're expressing support for the fiscal and economic policies of states like Florida, the Dakotas. Would you also want to emulate some of their social policies?

Do you consider the gun policies social? I would like to see us have a little more Second Amendment belief in this state. Obviously, that's what I ran on at the very beginning.

I think that no man should have a right to tell me how I should be able to protect myself and I shouldn't be able to tell somebody else, and I shouldn't be restricted where I go and where I am able to protect myself.

You had mentioned flooding in Florida. I believe you had a social media post recently questioning climate change. Do you believe in climate change and that it's man made?

Yeah, climate change — it’s called seasons: winter, summer, fall and spring. Those are climate changes. [Are] there things we do to damage our air quality? Absolutely. Do I think that we are killing the world, like Al Gore or like [Environment and Energy Committee Chair] Sen. [Bob] Smith will say? No.

I sat in on the Environment Committee, and [Smith] would say that the world was coming to an end. The same guy who says the world is going to flood and come to an end has a house on the water. So I don't think he really believes it. I think it's a lot of hyperbole.

I leave you with the final word. Why should you be governor?

I want what's right for New Jersey, and I believe I'm the person who can do it because I'm not owned by any special interest groups. I'm my own man. My only care is for the citizens in New Jersey and to make our state great again.

We had a really good state when I was a kid, growing up. My father was able to provide for a family of six. I believe that it would be great if we could get back to families raising and staying here instead of going away. And I know I'm the person who will hold true to my word. I'm not somebody who's just going to say this now to get elected and then move this way when I'm governor.