Republican State Chairman Doug Steinhardt predicted President Donald Trump’s remarks in Wildwood Tuesday evening will include praise for his accomplishments alongside some accolades for Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-Dennis).
“I think we’re going to hear a lot about the work that he’s been doing, you know, fighting trade wars that are helping the country, keeping the economy strong, putting America first again,” he said. “I think he’s got a great track record. The economy’s booming. Ironically, I think it masks a lot of the problems we have here in New Jersey.”
Trump is holding a rally in Wildwood to thank Van Drew for defecting to the Republican party.
The first-term congressman changed his party alignment last month after losing support from local Democrats over his opposition to impeachment proceedings against Trump.
The president has since endorsed Van Drew, a move that effectively cleared a once-crowded GOP primary.
Van Drew now faces a single opponent, former Trump aide Robert Patterson.
Once frontrunner David Richter has dropped his bid in favor of a run in the third congressional district and Brian Fitzherbert dropped out of the race and endorsed Van Drew.
Steinhardt said he expected the president to praise Van Drew over his opposition to impeachment,
“You’ve got congresspeople like Mikie Sherrill, Andy Kim, Malinowski, Gottheimer — all just dug down into this impeachment witch hunt,” Steinhardt said. “Meanwhile, the country’s passing them by. People are struggling, and I think he’ll point out that we got a congressman who realizes there’s a lot of hard work to be done if we’re ever going to put America on a better path.”
The rally in Wildwood’s Convention Center is expected to hit its 7,000 capacity and overflow outside of the venue’s arena.
Thousands of Trump supporters have been waiting in line in the convention parking lot for hours. Some camped out in line over the preceding days.
It’s unclear how much the Trump rally will boost Van Drew’s chances in the election with the primary field mostly cleared and the general roughly 10 months away.
It’s unclear whether Trump will return to campaign for Van Drew in the future, though Steinhardt said the state party would welcome him back with open arms.
“We’d love to have him back in New Jersey,” he said. “I would like to think that the turnout today is far greater than I think anybody expected. We had over 110,000 registrants two weeks ago, which I think bodes well for the amount of enthusiasm there is for the president, even here in New Jersey.”