New Jersey state Sen. Edward Durr sensed something familiar when Republican Mayra Flores swept to victory last week in a South Texas congressional district that Democrats had taken for granted.
Seven months earlier, Mr. Durr, a furniture truck driver, made headlines by toppling state Democratic Senate President Stephen Sweeney — a key power broker in Trenton who’d held the post for 12 years — with a low-budget campaign that focused on COVID-19 restrictions and the impact on small businesses.
“The nucleus of it was the Democrats weren’t listening. We listened, we went out and reached out to the people and listened to them,” Mr.