New Jersey Rep. Jeff Van Drew lost reelection on Tuesday to Democrat Zack Mullock. A closer look at the numbers reveals that a controversial data center in his district might have made a difference.
Republican Rep. Jeff Van Drew conceded his reelection campaign on Tuesday night to Cape May Mayor Zack Mullock, a Democrat. Mullock won the race by more than two points. In 2024, Van Drew, who was elected as a Democrat in 2018 and famously switched parties a year later, won reelection by a comfortable 17 points. In two years, the district swung nearly 20 points to the left.
A data center didn’t sink Van Drew on its own. A blue wave that swept Republicans out across the country would have reached South Jersey with or without the controversial Vineland facility.
But if you want to see what that wave looked like in New Jersey’s 2nd Congressional District, start with a 2.6-million-square-foot data center that the state fined $1.07 million for running dozens of unpermitted generators, and that Mullock made a centerpiece of his campaign while Van Drew sought to keep it at arm’s length. That doesn’t make it the reason he lost, but it does make it difficult to call a footnote.
NJ Digest has been following the Vineland data center since August. Read our earlier coverage.
The Data Center Controversy
In August, more than 100 district residents protested the DataOne project—a 2.6 million-square-foot AI facility in Vineland for Nebius Group, and part of a $17 billion arrangement with Microsoft.
There’s currently a nationwide backlash to data centers, but the Vineland project came with additional hurdles. In September, the state announced that the Department of Environmental Protection found 62 unpermitted gas generators on the site in late July, which weren’t there when the site was first inspected in December of 2025. August drone footage showed at least 45 of them running.
In September, the facility was hit with a $1.07 million fine—the largest against a data center in state history. These details carried over into the race.
How It Entered the Race
During his campaign, Mullock criticized the facility and called for a federal moratorium on data centers while more research is done on their effects on the environment and the electrical grid.
On the other side of the race, Van Drew’s campaign was distancing itself from the project all the way back in March when his campaign manager posted that the Congressman had no involvement in its approval, according to Gothamist, which also reported $19,000 in donations from the Vineland facility’s owners and other executives involved in the project.
In Cumberland County, where the facility lives, Van Drew won by 8 points in 2024, 53.4% to 45.4%, according to NBC News. This year, Mullock won that same county 56.1% to 42.7%, a swing of about 21 points to the left, slightly larger than the district-wide 20-point swing.
Representative-elect Mullock has vowed to take on data centers within his district, which are only getting more unpopular as time goes on. In Downe Township, a tiny Cumberland County municipality, a referendum asked voters a simple question: “Do you support data centers in the Township of Downe?” Residents voted no by a staggering 74.6 points.
The lesson isn’t that data centers beat a congressman. But to say the Vineland facility played no role is selling it short. Voters are paying closer attention to data centers than ever—who builds them, who powers them, which campaigns the people behind them fund, and which candidates have a plan for them.
If New Jersey Democrats want a lesson from the 2nd District, it’s that a data center under construction in a swing county is now a campaign issue. Mullock called for a federal moratorium. Van Drew couldn’t run from the issue fast enough.
Now, the district flips.
Peter Candia is the Food + Drink Editor at New Jersey Digest. A graduate of The Culinary Institute of America, Peter found a passion for writing midway through school and never looked back. He is a former line cook, server and bartender at top-rated restaurants in the tri-state area. In addition to food, Peter enjoys politics, music, sports and anything New Jersey.
