By 5:30 p.m. on December 1, the December sun had already set when Jake Ephros stopped by his campaign office in Jersey City’s Ward D to pick up a new voter contact list. With about twelve hours to go before polls opened in the city council runoff, Ephros was knocking on as many doors as he could.

It had been a long race for him. Ephros announced his candidacy back in June 2024, a full eighteen months prior to the final vote. But the early announcement seemed to have paid off. As he walked to the evening’s canvassing turf, Ephros was repeatedly stopped by neighbors, friends, and strangers who recognized him. Most were supporters, while some were undecided. At least one was coming back from their own door-knocking shift on behalf of Ephros’s campaign. Ephros greeted each person warmly, tried to remember where he met them, and thanked them for their support or asked what else he could do to earn it.

While Ephros hit the frigid streets, his staff worked out of a small campaign office right on the neighborhood’s main avenue. The campaign headquarters is surprisingly inviting. It’s bathed in a warm light and tastefully decorated with furniture salvaged from Facebook Marketplace. Yet for all its homey touches, the storefront is still a campaign office; the drop ceiling and microwave repeatedly tripping the breaker make that apparent.