When the pandemic exploded in the U.S., New Jersey was victimized by poor federal planning and what we now know to have been a fatal hesitancy to lock down New York City, where many of the state’s residents are (or were) obligated to travel for work. Since then, however, it has executed a consistent and successful strategy of shutdowns, mask encouragement, and vaccination. It’s going back and forth with New York for the distinction of having the highest vax rate of any state with an at least equally large population—both states have double-jabbed 66 percent of all residents—and it has one of the lowest rates of infection in the country. Pockets of vaccine hesitancy have been attacked proactively with school- and neighborhood-based outreach programs. (My colleague Aymann Ismail, who lives in Newark, confirms: “There are tents everywhere.”) In the midst of all this, New Jersey ran an entire presidential and congressional election in which mail ballots were sent to every voter and then—unlike in New York—counted quickly afterward.

As far ahead of the pack as not screwing basic things up puts an American institution these days, New Jersey also has a record of progress that exists apart from the pandemic. In 2018, the state passed a law guaranteeing 40 hours of annual paid sick leave to in-state workers. In 2019, it passed a law that will raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2024. (It’s currently at $12.) In 2020, it passed a tax increase on individuals earning more than $1 million a year, a reform similar to one that Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker has failed to get through in his state, and which has helped New Jersey actually fulfill its social-spending commitments to a degree not seen in many years. 2020 also saw the enactment of bill, described by Politico as “a groundbreaking win for the environmental justice movement,” that requires regulators to consider historic levels of pollution in a given neighborhood or area before approving further risks. (Seems like a no-brainer, but progress is progress!) And in 2021, “the dirty Jerz” decriminalized marijuana and set up a process to begin the legal sale thereof.