AN UNLIKELY VICTORY

The day after the election, U.S. Rep.-elect Zack Mullock simultaneously fielded calls from members of Congress and hugs from Cape May residents on the street. One person slowed down his car and shouted congratulations out his window. Others stopped their bicycles to express their well wishes.

A coffee shop customer said it was pretty cool that Mullock won. “But who’s gonna be mayor?”

The Jersey Shore mayor’s congressional race was not even on the map for national Democrats until just over a month ago. But after Mullock’s improbable win over a Republican four-term incumbent in a district President Donald Trump won by nearly 13 percentage points in 2024, his phone has not stopped ringing.

“I missed a call from Kamala Harris last night,” Mullock, 41, said Wednesday, sitting on a stool at his friend’s coffee shop, less than a 10-minute walk from the home he bought with his wife, Justine, in 2013, the front yard littered with their three kids’ sporting equipment. “So, yeah, I have a long list of people to call.”

U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew, a Republican, called Mullock to concede about two hours after polls closed — and two days before the Associated Press affirmed Mullock’s victory.

Locals in Cape May were giddy with excitement that their mayor beat Van Drew, who had won reelection by close to 20 percentage points the last two cycles. If anyone saw it coming, it was local organizers who watched Mullock meticulously build a winning operation over several months as he flew under the radar.

But many people were in utter shock, including Mullock, who said that when he first jumped in the race earlier this year, he didn’t think he would win.

“I really did it out of principle,” he said.

The last Democrat to win the seat was actually Van Drew in the 2018 anti-Trump wave. But the lawmaker switched parties a year later and declared his “undying support” for the president.

After winning a crowded primary in June, Mullock hit the pavement across the six counties in the district, and he kept hearing Republicans and independents say they would vote for him. Come September, he started to feel like, “OK, we have a shot here.”

As national forecasters predicted Van Drew’s reelection, Mullock felt a tighter race on the ground as he spoke with thousands of South Jerseyans in the sprawling district, which spans from Gloucester County in the Philly suburbs to Ocean County and the Jersey Shore.

“I just felt like there are too many people telling me they want change,” he said.

Mullock swung the district by about 20 points, one of the biggest shifts in the national blue wave.

And he did it largely without help from the national party other than a last-minute batch of outside spending and campaign trail appearances by a handful of prominent Democrats, including New Jersey U.S. Sens. Andy Kim and Cory Booker, in the final weeks of the race.

He ran as an everyday guy. His first campaign video featured him watching an Eagles game with his family. And he showed throughout his campaign that he could relate to other South Jerseyans. He was humble, saying he did not have a sales pitch when recording a video for social media with the governor just days before the election. But he also showed a fiery side on the debate stage with Van Drew, unabashedly cutting in to correct the incumbent.

“The way he did that really caught my attention,” said Jacovi Lindsey, a Vineland Democrat who leads Project Inspiration, a local organization that provides programming for underserved families.

Lindsey was one of many, many district residents who saw Mullock speak on the campaign trail. That was part of his winning strategy, said Mullock’s campaign manager, Chris Carroll.

“We would schedule stops everywhere every day, and we hit all six counties multiple, multiple, multiple times a week,” Carroll, 35, said in an interview Wednesday.

So many people had packed into the back of Independent Spirits Distillery in Gloucester County’s Woolwich to hear Mullock speak in August, they had to move outside.

Mullock told the crowd that he had asked Amy Kennedy — Van Drew’s 2020 challenger, who had come the closest before Mullock — if she was planning to run again. She was not, but she encouraged him to go for it. (Mullock ended up hiring Carroll, Kennedy’s former campaign manager).

Two weeks later, he was sitting in a room with JFK’s bomber jacket behind him in the home Kennedy shares with her husband, the late president’s nephew, former U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy.

“The first thing I said is, ‘I’m Zack Mullock, I’m a proud husband and a father of two,’ and my wife looks at me and I said, ‘Oh, I have three kids.’ So that was the start of the campaign,” he told the crowd to laughter.

He also recounted recently going on the national news to talk about Cape May’s water department being hit by an Iranian cyberattack, which he said was “a major reminder of just how important this election is.”

Nearly three months later, supporters had to once again move outside because so many people showed up at a get-out-the-vote event for Mullock with Gov. Mikie Sherrill in Vineland. Angela Bardoe, 55, chair of the Vineland Democratic Committee, said she had not seen that much energy in the decade she has been organizing in Cumberland County.

“We were always pulling teeth trying to get people to volunteer, and we’re not pulling teeth anymore,” she said the day before Election Day.

Mullock, who has worked as both a local contractor and a businessperson, was able to energize people across the diverse district, which includes multimillion-dollar homes along the Shore, immigrant communities, farmland, and Philly suburbs.

Carroll described Mullock as “the Mr. Rogers of Cape May” but also “a fighter for the people.”

“You feel at ease and at home with him,” Carroll said, noting voters’ exhaustion with the “messy” politics of the Trump era. “They just want a return of normalcy and decency, and that’s what Zack brought.”

He said the campaign had a big focus on unaffiliated voters, who make up 35% of the district’s electorate, more than either party.

Carroll said he knows the election was a referendum on Trump’s policies. But local issues like concerns about a large data center in Vineland also helped Mullock’s bid.

Mullock focused a lot on Van Drew’s support for Trump’s tariffs, his vote for a bill that cut Medicaid, and his votes against resolutions to end the Iran war. The cost of living, homeownership, and flooding concerns were also big issues, he said.

Van Drew’s campaign frequently posted about Mullock online, deriding him as a liar. The lawmaker told The Inquirer ahead of the election that backlash to Trump could shed a few points from his total, but he felt confident he would prevail.

As of Oct. 14, Van Drew’s campaign spent nearly $2.3 million during the 2026 cycle while Mullock’s campaign spent just upward of $855,000. Van Drew still had almost $900,000 left in his coffers at that point while Mullock had just over $100,000.

And while it was easy to find a public meet-and-greet with Mullock over the course of the summer and fall, the same could not be said for Van Drew, who largely attended community events without advertising his schedule.

Mullock knows Republicans, who make up 34% of the district’s electorate, crossed the aisle to support him.

“Just walking around town today, people were giving me the thumbs-up … and by the way, a lot of those people are Republicans,” he said Wednesday.

Republican Anne Nelson said in a phone interview Wednesday that Mullock was the best vote she has ever cast. Nelson, 56, had voted against Van Drew in the past but said attending a meet-and-greet with Mullock drove her to volunteer with his campaign.

“I’ve never been a huge political person. I paid attention, but not the way I paid attention this time,” said Nelson, a public school speech therapist who lives in Mays Landing.

Over the objections of some of her Trump-supporting family members, she decorated her lawn with “Republicans for Mullock” signs, along with a sign for a local Republican candidate.

“I feel like I can think independently about topics that matter, and I’m not going to just vote straight party lines when so much is on the line,” she said.

Meghan Protassi, Mullock’s childhood friend and owner of Bouie Coffee Shop, said in an interview Wednesday that as she phone-banked for Mullock, people told her that their significant other who historically voted for Van Drew planned to support Mullock.

“They’re just ready for something a little bit different,” said Protassi, 40, a Democrat.

A restaurant on Cape May’s beachside promenade was closing up shop for the season on Wednesday afternoon. But Mullock was quick to say that there is no off season as the small city’s mayor.

In a campaign video on Facebook that garnered more than 6,000 views, Mullock walked through Cape May to show some of his accomplishments in office: a new firehouse, a library, a theater, and a police station in the works. He squeezes down a blue slide, touting an ADA-accessible playground.

“We’ve done this all the same way: Democrats, Republicans, independents, moderates all working together — and even surfers,” he said, a young surfer making a cameo with a big smile. “That’s what I’ve done here in Cape May, and that’s what we’ll do in Congress.”

Mullock ran for Cape May City Council 10 years ago and lost. He won two years later, unseated the mayor two years after that in 2020, and was reelected without opposition.

It doesn’t hurt that people in Cape May and Cape May Point know the Mullock family well. With the candidate’s father, Bob Mullock, at the helm, family members have taken on projects to save historic landmarks, including the Sisters of St. Joseph’s beachfront retreat they turned into the Cape May Arts and Science Center.

His family also founded the Harriet Tubman Museum in Cape May, where Mullock worked as the volunteer general contractor for the project.

Members of Mullock’s family own the Chalfonte Hotel and the Cape May National Golf Club. Born and raised in Cape May Point, Mullock grew up working in hospitality, plumbing one minute and greeting customers the next, which he said was good training for elected office. He also served on the Atlantic Cape Community College Foundation Board for a decade.

Protassi said she is excited to see Mullock implement changes nationally that she has seen in Cape May.

“I do really think he has the ability to unite people. I think he can speak to people, and they really are receptive, and you know they’re interested in what he has to say.”

James Rosin, 71, who said he leans Libertarian, said that he supported Trump’s promises to stay out of wars and the ideas behind the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), but that the president has gone “off the rails.”

A retired psychiatric intensive care unit nurse who has lived in Cape May for 10 years, Rosin said independent-minded voters had “a change in tenor” that helped Democrats.

“He’s a very effective mayor,” Rosin said, walking from Acme to his bus stop on Wednesday. “He’s very personable. You know, everybody in town knows him.”

On Wednesday, Mullock ran into his old friend Rick Rutherford at the coffee shop. The two men were in a basement punk rock band together as young teens — Mullock played guitar and sang vocals, and played on a golf team with Rutherford’s brother. Rutherford was shocked and impressed when Mullock was even elected mayor.

Rutherford, 42, said he normally does not vote because he does not like the partisan political system. But the local chef-restaurant owner cast his vote for Mullock — and wrote in his wife for sheriff as a joke.

“I know him from, like, the roots of childhood and that he actually, like, just worked from the grassroots, ground up, all the way to where he is,” said Rutherford, who is registered as a Republican but does not identify with either party.

Mullock spent the morning of Election Day in a very Jersey fashion: visiting 12 diners across six counties. He went home for a lunch break and started feeling antsy that he was not working, so he began phone-banking, then went to hand out campaign literature in front of three different Wawas.

“I needed something to do,” he said.

Democrats had an enthusiastic showing in early voting, but as more votes came in on Election Day he thought he probably lost.

However, as the votes were tallied, he realized Republicans and unaffiliated voters must have really cast ballots for him. He had a chance.

And all of a sudden, at 10 p.m., Van Drew’s name came up on his phone — he knew thanks to caller ID, because he did not have his contact saved — and the lawmaker congratulated him.

“Honestly I started tearing up, because I just didn’t expect it,” Mullock said. “It was very emotional in that moment. My wife was next to me, so I gave her a big hug, and everyone cheered.”

Protassi was also caught off guard. She said she thought he might not win the seat on his first try and she might be making phone calls for him again in two years. “Then when I heard that he got the call, I was like, ‘Is this? Are we sure?’”

They were celebrating at his family’s hotel. His sister Cindy Mullock noted they hosted fundraisers for Van Drew in the same ballroom back when he was a Democrat.

Mullock got emotional when asked about how his family feels about him going to Washington.

“They’re so proud, my mom and dad,” he said, needing to step aside for a minute. “I just haven’t, I haven’t had a moment to process this yet,” Mullock said Wednesday, running on three hours of sleep, adrenaline, and coffee.

Trying to answer the question again, he said he was grateful for his wife, Justine, for her support, his kids, whose ballgames he had to miss, and his parents.

Mullock said he would not have launched his campaign if not for Trump, who he often says has been a negative role model for his 12-year-old son. But frankly, he acknowledged, he doesn’t feel ready for Congress.

“It is going to be a learning curve,” he said. “But I do remember the day I got elected as the youngest mayor in Cape May, and realizing that I don’t know everything that I’m doing, but I know my guiding principles, and I know my moral compass of right and wrong, and working to help others, and I think ultimately those are the decisions that you’re going to make in Congress.”

After Van Drew’s call came in Tuesday night, the governor flew down by helicopter from fellow New Jersey Democrat Rebecca Bennett’s victory party to celebrate. Mullock’s phone began buzzing with calls and texts that never really stopped. He went to bed at 3 a.m. and woke up at 6 a.m., and heard his phone buzzing throughout those three hours as well. He got up feeling full of love and graciousness.

“I mean, I just, I am — I’m a small-town mayor,” he said. “So to feel like people have the faith in you to represent them … it’s a beautiful thing.”

Staff writer Amy Rosenberg contributed to this article.