WILDWOOD, New Jersey — Former President Donald Trump told a New Jersey beach crowd of over 100,000 people Saturday that the solid blue state is in play to flip red this November.
Trump said the Republican Party will expand the electoral map this November and declared, “We’re going to officially play in the state of New Jersey. We’re going to win New Jersey.”
Not only does the former president have the Garden State in his sights, but he said President Joe Biden has been “so bad, I think we’re going to win them all. … I’m going to look at Joe Biden and say, ‘You’re fired!’”
“Welcome to the largest political event in the history of the state of New Jersey,” Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-NJ) told the crowd as supporters eagerly awaited Trump’s remarks. The city only expected between 30,000 and 40,000 in attendance, as Trump supporters have been lining up since Wednesday night for his first-ever beach rally.
Can Trump flip New Jersey?
Van Drew, who addressed the crowd ahead of Trump’s remarks, told the Washington Examiner, “I do think he has a chance. We’re not doing this as a dress rehearsal. We’re going to win, and we’re going to do everything we can. And I believe we will. I think we’re going to make some history.”
He explained that the New Jersey Democratic Party, to which he belonged until 2020, has an “excellent machine” and that it brings out “everybody living and dead to vote in the election.” Despite this, he said, Trump is now “almost within the margin of error” in a recent Emerson poll, in which he trails Biden by just 7 percentage points. Biden won the state by 16 points in 2020.
Wildwood mayor Ernie Troiano Jr. was more hesitant to express optimism about Trump’s chances in New Jersey, citing the aforementioned Democratic machine in the state.
“It’s hard to say,” he said. “If I had it my way, I would divide the state in half. You’d have the state of South Jersey and the state of North Jersey. North Jersey politics are totally different than South Jersey politics.”
Curtis Bashaw, a Republican Senate candidate, said Trump could “absolutely, 100%” win New Jersey because independent and Democratic voters are upset about the border, inflation, law enforcement, and parental rights.
“It’s not your grandmother’s Democratic Party anymore, and people are sick of the extreme liberalism,” Bashaw said.
“[Trump] cares about Jersey, he spends half of his life in New Jersey,” Van Drew added. “So it’s a big deal to him. And he’s expressed that to me, and that’s why he’s made me the chair of his Jersey campaign.”
Susan Kenny, 54, from Cherry Hill, New Jersey, said she thinks Trump can win her home state because “people are just fed up with the crime and the border crisis and the economy. We just need to go back to the way things were.” Her husband Edward, 64, said with inflation hurting his fellow New Jerseyans, “Trump can make the difference.”
Expressing similar concerns to Troiano’s, Richard Rounds, a production foreman from Camden County, said he’s not sure if Trump can win New Jersey “because there’s a lot of blue Democrats in this state. I know South Jersey votes for Donald Trump, but in North Jersey you got a lot of New Yorkers coming down. So I don’t know.”
Military veteran Anthony Pahopin, 45, from Woodbridge, New Jersey, said he thinks Trump can appeal to New Jerseyans because he’s effectively a “third-party candidate with conservative values” and doesn’t represent the establishment of either major party.
New Jerseyans are worried about the border and the economy under Biden
Van Drew, who represents Wildwood and most of South Jersey, said Garden State voters care deeply about securing the border as the migrant crisis “doesn’t just affect border states, it affects the whole country, and it affects New Jersey.”
The majority of voters the Washington Examiner spoke to at the rally expressed that the border is the biggest concern that Trump speaks to them on, while others lamented Biden’s economy.
Christine Powell, 52, a hospice social worker from Medford, New Jersey, said, “We don’t have a country [if we have] a porous border. I want every person who came here illegally to get shipped back home, wherever that is, because it’s illegal. They broke in. If I broke into my neighbor’s house, I would be arrested.
“All of us that were living paycheck to paycheck are now living paycheck to paycheck plus maxing out every single credit card because this economy is absolutely horrible,” she added.
Luke Reed, 18, a student at Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey, shared his concerns about finding a job and buying a house after college. “Inflation is going crazy. … It wasn’t bad under [Trump], and it’s getting really bad right now.”
New Jerseyans dismiss the former president’s ‘Trumped-up charges’
Trump’s Wildwood rally comes right in the middle of his Manhattan hush money trial, being prosecuted by District Attorney Alvin Bragg. Van Drew called the legal efforts against Trump “the weaponization of our judicial system.” Most rallygoers who spoke with the Washington Examiner agreed with Van Drew’s sentiment.
Raymond Callahan, 64, a pest control technician in the state called it “the banana-republic mentality. If you can’t beat them, put them in jail.” Bashow, the senate candidate, called it “persecution by prosecution.”
Cape May County Republican Party Chairman Michael Donahue described the legal efforts as “election interference” and a “sham.” He pointed out that Hunter Biden has not been prosecuted for alleged criminal wrongdoings discovered on his laptop.
“People in glass houses should not throw stones,” said Judy Berkeyheiser, 55, a secretary from Bordentown, New Jersey. “They need to look at the Biden family.” Her husband Marc, 51, an investigator for the Army, called the efforts “Trumped-up charges.”
New Jerseyans shared their favorite candidates for vice president
Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) was the most popular choice for vice president out of the rallygoers interviewed by the Washington Examiner, followed by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), Gov. Kristi Noem (R-SD), and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy.
Susan Kenny said she loves everything Scott stands for, and “the fact that he came from nothing and made himself into something great. I think this is what a lot of people aspire to be.” She also said she likes DeSantis but thinks he is too similar to Trump and wouldn’t expand his winning coalition.
Marc and Judy Berkeyheiser, along with Rhyanna Brown, 24, and Brian Blackburn, 22 whom they attended the rally with, all signaled Noem as their favorite vice presidential candidate.
Mark Bass, 64, a general contractor who has a summer home in North Wildwood, said he also likes Noem but that she “shot herself in the foot” by revealing that she shot and killed her 14-month-old dog. Scott is his favorite for Trump’s running mate.
Pahopin, the military veteran, said Ramaswamy is his favorite because “he’s a breath of fresh air. He’s not really into politics. He’s accomplished, smart, and articulate.”
Trump addressed the crowd after Van Drew gave a speech mentioning how the former president supported him when he became a Republican in 2020, despite skepticism within the GOP.
Van Drew told the Washington Examiner that changing parties was “not an easy thing to do, quite frankly” and detailed his relationship with Trump and how the pair “developed a friendship” after spending a good amount of time together and “literally spoke about everything,” from faith to freedom to family.
“He’s a loyal guy and if you’re straight with him, he’s straight with you,” Van Drew said, noting that they have spoken roughly once a week since the budding of their friendship. He revealed that he personally requested that Trump visit South Jersey for the second time to “make history,” as no president has visited the area twice.
“New Jerseyans are, by and large, hardworking, good people,” Van Drew said. “Yes, it is a blue state, but they also have certain beliefs and principles. And I think they’re going to surprise us this time around.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Trump and the other speakers expressed the importance of employing strategies championed by Democrats to compete in the November election, seeking to “get out the vote” with a turnout “so big, it can’t be rigged.”
“If we win New Jersey, we’re going to win the whole thing,” Trump said.
