Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton endorses Durr for re-election

U.S. Senator Tom Cotton, a Republican from Arkansas, today announced his endorsement of New Jersey State Sen. Ed Durr (R-Logan), who is facing a serious primary challenge from Assemblywoman Beth Sawyer (R-Woolwich).

“[Durr] showed how with hard work, a trucker can beat an entrenched political boss,” Cotton said on Twitter this morning. “He’s inspired countless candidates to run. I support Ed as he fights for common-sense conservative values in the state senate.”

Durr, of course, first got to office by unseating then-Senate President Steve Sweeney (D-West Deptford) in a huge 2021 upset. It was a victory that catapulted him into the national spotlight – a spotlight that evidently reached as far as Arkansas.

Both Durr and Cotton have established themselves as among the rightmost members of their respective chambers; Durr frequently pushes for deeply conservative bills on guns and abortion that have no chance of becoming law in Democratic-controlled New Jersey.

But Durr’s relationship with Sawyer, his former running mate who also unseated a powerful Democratic incumbent in 2021, has deteriorated during his first term. Sawyer has argued that Durr hasn’t been an effective voice for the 3rd legislative district, and is leading a major effort to unseat him and other candidates endorsed by the Gloucester County Republican Party.