Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-NJ), a Democrat-turned-Republican, compared election night’s blue tsunami to the Watergate scandal of the 1970s after he was defeated by Democrat Zach Mullock.
After conceding to Mullock, Van Drew spoke with reporters about his loss and said it was the result of the GOP peaking “at the wrong time.” When discussing the scale of Democrats’ win Tuesday night, he likened it to Watergate without the political scandal.
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“What I said all along was, ‘I’ll be fine as long as it isn’t Watergate,’ and it kind of is a Watergate,” he said. “There’s no Watergate issue, but it’s kind of like Watergate was larger than life and just swept people along with it that weren’t necessarily doing anything wrong or did a bad job.”
Van Drew was first elected to the House in 2018 as a Democrat but switched to the Republican Party after he said his party had shifted too far left. He said he had long considered President Donald Trump a friend, as the pair had talked before Van Drew’s party switch.
He compared his friendship with the president to the dynamic between late congressman Charlie Sandman and former President Richard Nixon. Sandman defended Nixon during impeachment hearings following Watergate, which ultimately led to his resignation.
“Charlie Sandman, and he was a congressman from Cape May that was popular and stuck by Nixon, and he got swept away,” Van Drew said. “It happens.”
Van Drew said Tuesday night he “really believed” he would emerge victorious. In the 2026 elections, his seat was expected to be safe for Republicans.
“I don’t know that anything in life is a shock, and I follow politics pretty closely,” Van Drew said. “Not the first time that happened. It does happen. So a little bit of a surprise, yes, because we felt so strong when we were out there. Everybody was supportive.”
Overall, Van Drew attributed his loss to circumstances greater than his southern New Jersey district.
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“It’s the national landscape,” he said. “It’s nothing that we’ve done.”
The New Jersey Globe reported Van Drew called Democrat Zach Mullock to concede before the Associated Press called the race. At 10:24 p.m., the outlet had Mullock leading with 52.1%, with the New Jersey Republican behind him at just 46.9%.