Jeff Van Drew party switch came as Democrats abandoned him

PHILADELPHIA — Rep. Jeff Van Drew, the conservative New Jersey Democrat who is expected to soon become a Republican, found himself in an unfamiliar and troubling position in recent weeks: Watching support drop off from Democratic leaders in the state who had long tolerated his base-angering votes in the name of political expediency.

Van Drew, who served nearly two decades in the state Legislature, was never popular with the party’s progressive base in a state that's turned increasingly blue. He voted against gay marriage, increasing the minimum wage and numerous gun control measures.

But none of that stopped the Democratic establishment from coalescing behind Van Drew as soon as the 2nd Congressional District’s longtime Republican incumbent, Frank LoBiondo, announced in 2017 that he wouldn't seek reelection. That same day, power broker George Norcross — the undisputed if unofficial leader of South Jersey Democrats — issued a statement saying he encouraged Van Drew to run and was offering his full support.

But cracks in that support began to appear when Van Drew’s stance against impeaching President Donald Trump started affecting local elections in New Jersey and tanked his Democratic support in his district, which encompasses the southern tip of the state including Atlantic City. Van Drew made the national media rounds, even getting a supportive tweet from Trump after an appearance on Fox & Friends.

“The large majority of our party in Cumberland really isn’t or wasn’t happy with [Van Drew’s] approach on impeachment,” said Doug Long, a former Cumberland County Democratic chairman who remains influential in county politics. “That really has little to do with local politics, until it becomes a part of local politics.”

Van Drew’s interim Democratic successor in the state Senate, Bob Andrzejczak, campaigned for a second full term in November with his Assembly running mates as “Team Van Drew.”

Andrzejczak followed Van Drew’s lead in avoiding anything that might upset the district's pro-Trump voters , at one point even musing about the possibility he would vote for Trump. But Andrzejczak and his two Democratic incumbent running mates lost, performing poorly even in the state legislative district’s Democratic stronghold of Cumberland County.

During a panel discussion two days after the election, Chris Russell, a consultant for Mike Testa, the Republican who defeated Andrzejczak, said that “for him to muse about voting for President Trump, there’s only so much a base Democrat can take before they say ‘listen, I’ve got a problem with this.’”

That soon became apparent to Van Drew, who sought to head off doubts about his support by asking county Democratic chairs from the district whether they would sign a letter of support for him. According to a published report, many refused to sign. His own campaign’s poll showed him deeply unpopular with the district’s Democrats, according to a copy obtained by POLITICO.

Atlantic County Democratic Chairman Michael Suleiman even wrote a letter to Van Drew to make a last ditch plea for him to change his stance on impeachment, noting that the district’s late Republican U.S. Rep. Charles Sandman lost reelection in 1974 after being one of President Richard Nixon’s most high-profile defenders during the impeachment process.

Until recently, Democratic leaders saw Van Drew as one of the few Democrats who could win in a pro-Trump district. New Jersey saw one of the most pronounced anti-Trump backlashes in the nation in 2018, when its congressional delegation went from seven Democrats and five Republican to 11 Democrats and one Republican.

But while Van Drew was part of that Democratic wave, his large and mostly rural South Jersey district shares little in common with the districts father north where suburban backlash fueled the anti-Trump tide. In fact, Van Drew won a relatively narrow victory over a largely unfunded pro-Trump Republican candidate who had little money and had even lost support of national Republicans by approvingly sharing white supremacist propaganda on social media.

Several names had already surfaced as potential challengers to Van Drew, including local officials and Brigid Callahan Harrison — a professor of political science at Montclair State University who lives in the district. Harrison, who’s well-known in New Jersey political circles as an oft-quoted political pundit, said it’s clear that impeachment has changed the political calculus.

“I’m making new friends in other parts of the district, some of whom have very long-standing relationships with Congressman Van Drew, who understand that this position on this watershed issue - kind of the defining issue of the generation — means they need to question their support of him,” Harrison said last week, when Van Drew’s potential party switch was just a rumor.

Van Drew’s political conversion doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll be the GOP nominee. Three Republicans had already declared their candidacies for his seat. And while Trump’s backing would be politically potent, it would have to overcome hard GOP feelings from decades of tough election battles against Van Drew.

One of the Republican candidates, Brian Fitzherbert in a statement Saturday accused Van Drew of “trying to use South Jersey Republicans to cling onto his power.”

“How stupid does Desperate Jeff Van Drew think South Jersey Republicans are? Desperate Jeff knew exactly what Washington Democrats were about when he ran for Congress two years ago,” Fitzberhert said.

Keith Davis, the Republican chairman of Atlantic County, said his party’s candidate selection process will proceed as normal, with or without Van Drew.

“We have a process, and we’ll see how it goes,” Davis said. “We’ve got three candidates in the race right now, we have a convention in the spring and I’m sure it will be an interesting one.”

Article originally published on POLITICO Magazine