New Jersey doesn’t usually make headlines on a presidential election night. But this time around, we shocked local and national pundits when we got closer to turning red than any Presidential election since 1992. Multiple headlines have now contemplated New Jersey’s new status as a state in play. But while the “smart” folks who know politics might be surprised, a growing number of New Jerseyans aren’t. You’ve probably never heard of this formerly-silent majority. We don’t make headlines. We aren’t the loudest voices. We don’t hold a news microphone, celebrity status or an elected office. More than likely, many of you reading this belong to this majority.

We hold what the corporate media calls ‘controversial views.’ We feel we should keep more of our hard-earned money. We think we should be able to provide for our families on a middle class income. We want jobs to stay in America. We don’t agree with sending money to foreign fights when our own country is struggling. We want the border secured. We would prefer our elementary schoolers were taught reading, writing and math, not gender identity. We don’t like watching female boxers get beat up by biological men in the boxing ring. Weird, right? 

For years, folks who hold these common sense ideas – ideas that used to be embraced by the Democratic party of our parents and grandparents – have been demonized by the elite who do hold the microphone. We’ve been called everything from “weird” to “racist,” “fascist,” and “bigoted.” And we’ve been told to shut up and vote these elites back into office to tax us, control us, and groom our kids.

Pre-election national polling found more than 60% of the country believed we were on the wrong track. The reasons ranged from a struggling economy, sky-high prices and lingering inflation to the border crisis and the Left’s increasingly out-of-touch woke positions on issues like men in women’s sports. It’s safe to say in a state where residents struggle under high property and income taxes and where unemployment hit sixth highest in the country this summer, the economy likely topped the list for New Jerseyans. But that’s not all. Many of us noted that while New Jersey students struggle in core subjects like math and reading, schools are pushed – and often required — to teach gender identity and the state’s education association (NJEA) puts millions of its teacher’s hard-earned dues towards its president’s gubernatorial campaign. 

Why has this majority been largely silent until now? First, our views didn’t used to be controversial. You shouldn’t need to form a coalition around the idea that the sky is blue or the earth is round. When it finally became clear that common sense wasn’t quite so common in the halls of power and in our media – and that the Democratic party had abandoned common sense entirely – many of us didn’t feel like sticking our necks out to be vilified. Understandably.

But on November 5, we decided the stakes were just too high to stay silent, close our mouths and keep voting the way we’ve been told. Vilify us. Call us names. We no longer care. We’re shouting, “the emperor has no clothes!’ Are the elite listening? Maybe a little. Election night startled them in their comfortable slumber. But I don’t think they’ll really start listening until this majority comes for their jobs in 2025, 2026, and long into the future. They’ll keep name-calling, and blaming everything but the real issue – that they’ve lost their minds. They are the crazy ones. 

But common sense is rising up. Elitists, trust us, it’s a good thing. You just don’t realize it yet.

Elizabeth Nader is an author, President of New Jersey’s Common Sense Club, and leader of Elect Common Sense, a PAC dedicated to supporting candidates for local offices. She resides in Morris County with her husband and children.