Democrats this week held on to a hotly contested state senate seat reelecting incumbent Vin goal by a landslide for a third term in office in the Jersey Shore's 11th District but voters also flipped the state's two assembly seats there blue and made history by electing Luanne Peterpaul the first openly lgbtq woman to the New Jersey legislature in a race where parental notification policies for transgender and non-binary students loomed large assemblywoman elect Peter Paul joins me now assemblywoman elect it's great to meet you and welcome to the show uh congratulations is in order this was a long hard uh fight for you all in the 11th District and you were pinned as really The Underdogs because of the Republican Advantage given the split uh district there yes we were and thank you so much for having me on as you can see I'm I'm losing my voice a little bit after the long campaign but it was a long campaign we had a tremendous team behind us it was a team that really worked together almost like a family because we all believed in the same thing we all believed in our messaging we all believed in the fact that we were um telling the right things and and speaking about the right things moving forward it was a tough election um but it was well worth it at the end we kept our eye on the prize what are you going into Trenton hoping to do you obviously have a long career as a a former County prosecutor um municipal judge uh of course lots of talk about you being the first um lgbtq uh member there what is your hope when you head to Trenton you know being the first lgbtq plus out um lesbian elected to the legislature was really it's it's a part of who I am being um gay but it wasn't the issue that really thrust me into politics except on Election night I do have to say that um several people came up to me with tears in their eyes and thanked me for putting myself out there and running in fact one particular story stands out with me out to me is um a fireman who had tears in his eyes and came up to me and said he traveled hours to help uh get us elected and and me and particular because his 15-year-old son came out to him earlier this year and and that's what I want to bring to the legislature is not just lgbtq plus equality but across the board I mean we're facing a lot of anti-Semitism in today's world we need to look at each other and reach across the aisle and try and have a dialogue that's not um filled with vitriol we we need to begin to do the work that is necessary for our constituents yeah I mean you're running me uh Senator Vin goal said you know civility at the end of the day one out do you think that's what it is and how do you begin to bridge that divide um when the rhetoric has become so heated um and uh intense well I think Senator gopal has established a template on how to reach across the aisle I mean that's why he chose both or asked both Mar Dr Margie donlin and myself to run because he realize that we believed in the same thing look being an attorney being an assistant prosecutor being a judge you come to realize that communication um Community uh you know all of that makes a big difference coming across as being um adversarial all of the time it really just polarizes the situation so you know we're going to follow what Senator gopal has mapped out in terms of Civility and Reaching Across the aisle assembly woman elect Peterpaul uh winning in the 11th District thanks so much for your time thank you so much