On the other side of the Democratic Primary, Team Mullock could sense the national mood building toward a blue wave. The question was: what did it mean for CD-2, a district incumbent U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R) had won by 17 points in 2024 and 60-40 in 2022.

Van Drew's allies made the case that in a Trump blowback year CD-2 would rely on its red base to keep Van Drew alive.

Just like Mississippi.

Or Kansas.

But Mullock knew the district well. The mayor of Cape May knew he needed to appeal to unaffiliated voters. The campaign identified these voters and made an aggressive push in their direction.

As the general election campaign came together they relied on U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D) up for reelection statewide and the Democratic State Committee to focus on the Democratic base. The Mullock campaign in its door knocking and phone banking would primarily go after unaffiliated voters.

Mullock knew these voters. He was a small-town mayor after all, in a red county, and relied on Republican allies to reach constituents skeptical of the two-party system. A political pragmatist, Mullock felt a certain level of comfort chasing down prospective voters who refused to see their political options along party lines.

The campaign at the same time placed a strong emphasis on vote by mail ballots, in hopes of starting Election Day against Van Drew in the lead.

An insurmountable lead, in fact.

That was the goal.

While Van Drew (especially in the closing days of the developing general election contest) focused on big national issues driven from the top, including the voter fraud issue advanced by the Trump Administration and fears over undocumented workers, Mullock pinpointed local problems exacerbated by Trump and his policies and rubber stamped by the Republican incumbent.

In Cumberland, the Democratic challenger stood up against the data center in Vineland, an issue deeply worrisome to area residents. This issue seemed to get the most attention outside of CD-2, as New Jerseyans everywhere fretted about the impacts of deregulated big tech.

But Mullock had other issues he tackled specific to the diverse populations of the 2nd District. He focused, for example, on the impact of Trump's hostility toward Canada on the shore tourism trade. Ten percent of South Jersey tourism comes from Canadian tourists, or roughly the overhead for a lot of struggling shore businesses.

Mullock took that issue on headlong.

In addition, no one except Mullock talked about the price of fertilizer in Trump's economy, a key commodity, indeed pivotal, to Salem farmers.

And then he had gas prices to work with, of course, painful to the entirety of CD-2. Also, Mullock routinely expanded on the specific injurious impact of Trump's high diesel prices on the aqua tourism and aqua culture of CD-2. Boats depend on diesel.

It was tough in that environment for Van Drew to pin the voter ID problem Governor Mikie Sherrill inherited in Trenton on a small-town mayor in Cape May.

While campaigning hard at event after event, Mullock was also able to convince voters that he would restore "decency and normalcy" to the 2nd District.

He wasn't going to be a jerk.

He wasn't going to be extremely negative.

He would be a nice, effective, good government guy.

For years a constituent services animal, Van Drew, for his part, did not project on-the-ground connectivity to the degree that he had in the past. In the rivals' lone debate, the Congressman made a special request that the public be excluded from the event.

As Mullock focused on the ground war, the Philadelphia television media market proved a difficult penetrating platform for Van Drew with the same efficiency of the past. Multiple high-stakes Pennsylvania contests crammed the airwaves. Mullock knew they didn't have the money to compete on TV so continually found other creative ways to reach voters, especially digitally. The campaign did buy one TV ad during an Eagles game.

Insiders beyond the confines of CD-2 came away favorably impressed by Mullock's hard-nosed debate performance, which made Van Drew's seem canned by comparison. It represented the cumulative effect of all these other elements of the campaign strategy coming together that made the challenger look like the more robust and prepared option.

Governor Sherrill made several campaign appearances in South Jersey in support of Mullock, including one on the Monday just prior to Election Day. Her presence galvanized Mullock's core base of volunteers and supporters who were used to South Jersey getting mostly forgotten by past governors.

They felt, one source shared with InsiderNJ, that Sherrill contributed to putting CD-2 on the map.

Someone was actually paying attention to South Jersey for a change.

The Election Night concession phone call from Van Drew to Mullock surprised some of the Democratic challenger's core allies.

Trying not to get carried away by enthusiasm, they wanted to stay as skeptical as possible. Mullock himself was one of these skeptics. Truth be told, he felt a little disappointed by Election Day turnout. Republicans seemed to be holding their own. But, someone in his campaign told him, so many Democrats had voted early - and they still trusted in the candidate's message to unaffiliated voters, the hallmark, in fact, of the entire campaign.

Someone mentioned that former Senate President Steve Sweeney - who was closely watching the contest - had numbers that showed Van Drew and Mullock more or less tied in the area of 90K, with 30K unaffiliated votes recorded.

Mullock's people - while not wishing to get carried away - belied this critical targeted group would break their way.

It did.

And Van Drew knew it.

So did Sherrill and her team, who began making preparations to fly the Governor from Rebecca Bennett's victorious headquarters down to South Jersey to again stand with Mullock.

Said one insider with Mullock:

"It's surreal for all of us. We all knew this could happen. I think we were all cautiously optimistic. But we did not want to get our hopes up and then feel dejected. The worst thing was potentially losing by 100 votes, because then we would have said, 'If only we did this, or did this.'"

Little things gave them a good feeling.

A Mullock town hall in Republican Ocean City attended by 200 people.

Two-hundred people showing up for a Democratic candidate in Ocean City?

Something was happening.

Lawn signs in Cape May - both candidates' home county - which featured Mullock and Republican County Commissioner candidate Curtis Bashaw.

It seemed to be adding up.

Mullock's Cape May identity chipped strongly into Van Drew's longtime stranglehold on that county, as the challenger lost Ocean County by 26%, less than past Van Drew victims.

In the end, Mullock won, 50.8% to 48.2% over Van Drew in a blue wave election effort, heavy on precision driven strategy and tactics, district-wide issues, unaffiliated voters, and featuring a candidate who ran a stellar race, hitting multiple key dynamics to connect with South Jerseyans seeking change, whom Mullock will now serve in the United Staes House of Representatives.