Former Democrat, Mocked for Switching Parties, Wins as Republican in New Jersey

Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R., N.J.), a former Democrat, switched parties in January 2020 after opposing his party’s effort to impeach President Donald Trump. He was widely mocked and derided by his former colleagues and other liberals at the time, and most experts predicted he would lose reelection in 2020. Van Drew won by 5 percentage points, defeating a member of the disgraced Kennedy dynasty.

“This is an awful thing to do,” said Rep. Bill Pascrell (D., N.J.) of Van Drew’s decision to switch parties in 2019. “You make a commitment. That doesn’t mean you’ve got to vote every way that the majority or the leadership asks you to vote. Certainly, it means you owe something to the organization who put you where you are.”

Pascrell also insinuated that Van Drew’s betrayal warranted a violent response. “Do you know how we would have handled this back in Paterson?” the congressman said, referring to his hometown. He added that Van Drew would no longer be welcome to set foot on the Democratic side of the House chamber. . .

Most professional pundits thought Van Drew would lose, primarily because most of them bought into the narrative of a “blue wave” election. “Van Drew’s defection to GOP haunts him in tight race,” read the headline of a Politico report published last week. The polls showed him trailing Democratic challenger Amy Kennedy, the wife of Patrick Kennedy, the former congressman and son of the late sexual predator Ted Kennedy. . .

But Republicans got the last laugh. Van Drew prevailed, and the GOP is on track to gain at least six seats in the House in what is shaping up to be an embarrassing failure of an election for Democrats not named Joe Biden. (Read more from “Former Democrat, Mocked for Switching Parties, Wins as Republican in New Jersey” HERE)

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