Five candidates will compete in a primary on July 7 for the opportunity to challenge Representative Jeff Van Drew, who in 2018 was the first Democrat to represent the state’s 2nd congressional district in 24 years.
But the blue wave was short-lived. Late last year, Van Drew defected to the Republican Party following his opposition to President Donald Trump’s impeachment. He was just one of two Democrats to back Trump, a move that earned him the scorn of New Jersey’s liberal establishment.
“If you lose the party organization line and you’re running on the primary ballot in New Jersey, you might as well be in Siberia. He was left scrambling,” said Micah Rasmussen, director of the Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics at Rider University.
Rasmussen, who managed some of Van Drew’s political races in the late 1990s, added that the “door to flipping was always open to him” thanks to significant support from Republican leaders in his district.
After Van Drew’s defection, the race quickly became a contested congressional battleground between the newly minted Trump supporter and the Democratic Party he left behind.
Tuesday’s Democratic primary includes Brigid Callahan Harrison, a political science professor at Montclair State University; Amy Kennedy, a mental health advocate married to former congressman Patrick Kennedy; and Will Cunningham, a veteran congressional aide who lost to Van Drew in the 2018 primary. The two other names on the ballot are John Francis III and Robert Turkavage, both of whom are considered serious underdogs.
“This race is about so much more than a seat in Congress. It is a race in which we must ask ourselves, will we let privilege and wealth defeat experience and true equitable representation?” Cunningham said in a statement. He added, “In tomorrow’s primary, I know the people of South Jersey will vote for real progressive change because it embodies desperately needed reforms to uplift communities.”
While public polling of the primary has been scarce, experts say the race has largely come down to Kennedy and Harrison. Kennedy has positioned herself as a progressive political outsider despite her celebrity surname. Harrison has argued that her moderate positions are better suited for the conservative district. Both of them support mainstream Democratic issues like providing a public option to the Affordable Care Act and moving to 100 percent clean energy. They’ve also both condemned Van Drew as a traitor and attributed their desire to run for office to his defection to the GOP.
“Jeff Van Drew betrayed the people of South Jersey and left our communities behind. No politician or leader should ever pledge their undying support to anyone other than the people they are elected to represent. Now more than ever, leadership matters. The people of South Jersey are tired of leaders that are only interested in serving themselves,” Kennedy said in a statement. “We are ready for change, ready for leaders with integrity, real Democratic values, and a commitment to service.”
But Harrison and Kennedy’s candidacies have split the state’s Democratic establishment. Governor Phil Murphy recently endorsed Kennedy while Harrison racked up support early on from influential South Jersey power broker George Norcross and state Senate President Stephen Sweeney.
“It speaks to the divisions within the party itself and those divisions are going to have to be healed if they have any hope in the fall of upsetting Congressman Van Drew,” said John Farmer, the director of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University.
Van Drew is expected to easily win the Republican primary on Tuesday as he faces conservative Bob Patterson. Patterson has repeatedly knocked Van Drew as being “too liberal” for southern New Jersey Republicans, pointing to his opposition for Trump’s border wall and his past support for reproductive rights.
“For too long, the career politicians—in bed with the globalists and the corporatists—have sold out South Jersey. The result has been corporate downsizing, outsourced jobs, a porous border, and so-called sanctuary cities. Jeff Van Drew is a poster boy of the entrenched political establishment who will say and do anything to hold onto power. He isn’t standing up for South Jersey; he only standing for himself and his career,” Patterson said in a statement.
Despite Patterson’s attacks, Van Drew’s professed “undying support” for the president quickly cemented his status in the Republican Party. In March, about two months after Van Drew left the Democratic Party, the National Republican Campaign Committee added the freshman lawmaker to its Patriot Program.
Trump issued a tweet in support of Van Drew less than a week before the primary, calling him a “Courageous Leader who defended me against Pelosi’s Impeachment Scam and is a conservative who shares our Republican values. Jeff is a fighter for South Jersey and will always put America First. Vote for Jeff!”
Trump won New Jersey’s 2nd congressional district by 5 points against Hillary Clinton in 2016, a good sign for Van Drew heading into November. Overall, the general election race is currently rated as lean Republican by nonpartisan forecasters like Sabato’s Crystal Ball and the Cook Political Report.
“Elections are about choices, and no matter who the Democrats nominate, South Jersey voters couldn’t have a clearer contrast this fall. Congressman Van Drew will fight for lower taxes, stand with small business owners to create jobs, protect our border and ensure healthcare is both affordable and accessible,” said Ron Filan, Van Drew’s campaign manager. “No matter what radical Democrat is nominated, they will raise taxes, impose job-killing regulations, open our borders and create big government socialized health care that will hurt seniors.”
Newsweek reached out to the Harrison campaign but did not receive a response before publication.
Update: This story has been updated to include comment from Republican candidate Bob Patterson, Democratic candidate Amy Kennedy and comment from Rep. Van Drew’s campaign manager Ron Filan.
