NJ-2: Van Drew considering switching parties over impeachment

[Landslide Lyndon]

Isn't this something? The Democratic Party isn't going to even allow Van Drew to cast a token "No" vote on an impeachment effort which is ultimately doomed to failure in the Senate, and because of that, he's switching parties? A confused and disheartening situation on all sides. It is true that this district is rapidly trending Republican, Van Drew won by a much smaller margin than had initially been expected, and he succeeded a long-time Republican incumbent who held the seat for more than two decades. On the other hand, party-switchers do not have an unparalleled history of success, and often do so out of personal selfishness.

I'm not sure what to think about this, but what I do know is that this makes it likely Collin Peterson will be the only Democrat in the entire House of Representatives to vote no on the articles of impeachment. Even in 1998, something on the order of six Republicans voted against Bill Clinton's impeachment. Never have we seen an impeachment as partisan and polarized as this one.

Nobody is forcing Van Drew to stupidly switch parties. Thats his decision. Whatever happens to him from this point onward is his fault and his alone.

The polls from that district indicate that Van Drew has lost considerable support among the Democratic base and the Democratic party machine, precisely because of his opposition to impeachment. Now, I will agree that he may be facing the end of the road either way. If he were to remain a Democrat, and voted no on impeachment, he would be booted in the primary. And if he becomes a Republican, then he has no guarantee of winning that party's primary. However, this party switch is apparently being done, in part, on Trump's urging, and Trump is apparently set to appear with Van Drew this coming week. A Trump endorsement is gold in the eyes of his base, and could very well help Van Drew gain the support of the Republican machine in his district and to win that primary.

Because that worked so well with Luther Strange.

That's a legitimate point. But in the vast majority of cases, a Trump endorsement has proven to be a valuable asset for Republican candidates in the primaries.

Most of the candidates weren't opportunistic party switchers.

[OneJ]

This whole situation also highlights how much of an idiot Van Drew is apparently.

1. Why would make a switch from the majority party to the minority party?

2. Asking DCCC staffers to back him after he switches from the Democratic to Republican Party. Need I say more?

3. Van Drew thought it was a good idea to constantly criticize his own party while trying to give himself a particular image to voters when all he was really doing was being a thorn to the party. What made him think it was a good idea to pick apart his own party then crawl back to receive help from DCCC staffers now that he's a whole Republican (which he pretty much always was)?

4. He should've realized that he was really backing himself into the corner when he decided not to back impeachment in the first place. As already said, there's a good-sized Democratic base within NJ-02 that's largely, as one might imagine and judging by the results of the poll gracile posted from Twitter, upset with his cowardly decision to vote no on impeachment.

5. Van Drew switching his party affiliation does nothing but harm. He'll lose staffers. Him cozying up to Trump in order to save him in the primary isn't guaranteed. And even if he somehow does get Trump's endorsement which is unlikely it'd still be a tough sell to both Republican primary voters and the Republican establishment. And even if he does win the primary he still has to go through the general election which is also no guarantee he'd win given that he's alienated his old Democratic base and maybe a chunk of Republican voters refusing to vote for him for obvious reasons. On top of all of this he still has to vote with the Republican establishment and Trump by him being considerably to the left of even the most moderate of the party.

[Brittain33]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Forbes

[Co-Chair Bagel23]

If he does it, f@ck him, I regret defending him.

[Co-Chair Bagel23]

What a clown

https://twitter.com/JonathanTamari/status/1206003646359654400?s=20

Van Drew doesn't seem very bright, to put it nicely.

Wow; this is like breaking up with a girl, then expecting her parents to continue to invite you to their 4th of July cookout

This sounds oddly personal

[Dr Oz Lost Party!]

I just find it hilarious how literally every other tweet on his Twitter account is him touting a major piece of Democratic legislation... he even mentioned House Dems by name in his support for the drug cost bill.

Unlike Sinema and Peterson, he didn't shy away from the Democratic label.

[💥💥 brandon bro (he/him/his)]

Really don't understand what is going through this dude's head. He votes with Trump less than 10% of the time. He voted for a $15 minimum wage.

He endorsed Cory Booker for god's sake!

Isn't this something? The Democratic Party isn't going to even allow Van Drew to cast a token "No" vote on an impeachment effort which is ultimately doomed to failure in the Senate, and because of that, he's switching parties? A confused and disheartening situation on all sides. It is true that this district is rapidly trending Republican, Van Drew won by a much smaller margin than had initially been expected, and he succeeded a long-time Republican incumbent who held the seat for more than two decades. On the other hand, party-switchers do not have an unparalleled history of success, and often do so out of personal selfishness.

I'm not sure what to think about this, but what I do know is that this makes it likely Collin Peterson will be the only Democrat in the entire House of Representatives to vote no on the articles of impeachment. Even in 1998, something on the order of six Republicans voted against Bill Clinton's impeachment. Never have we seen an impeachment as partisan and polarized as this one.

Nobody is forcing Van Drew to stupidly switch parties. Thats his decision. Whatever happens to him from this point onward is his fault and his alone.

lmao @ Calthrina blaming the Democratic Party. That's so incredibly on the nose..

[smoltchanov]

May be - he simply sees all that impeachment thing to be utter sillyness (me - too). But - not sure, whether it's a sound reason to switch - he will NOT be welcome in Trump Republican party either.

[Dr Oz Lost Party!]

May be - he simply sees all that impeachment thing to be utter sillyness (me - too). But - not sure, whether it's a sound reason to switch - he will NOT be welcome in Trump Republican party either.

Or because his district is R-trending and he's an opportunist? That sounds more accurate.

[junior chįmp]

May be - he simply sees all that impeachment thing to be utter sillyness (me - too). But - not sure, whether it's a sound reason to switch - he will NOT be welcome in Trump Republican party either.

Maybe he is centrist bipartisan independent maverick man who feels impeachment has gone too far (unlike GOP impeaching Clinton lying about getting a BJ which was totally based on principles and rule of law)

Dems should not punish Van Drew as voters only hold the left accountable for diverging too far from the ideological center and never hold the Republican party accountable for going too far right

[Landslide Lyndon]

lmao @ Calthrina blaming the Democratic Party. That's so incredibly on the nose..

That's his shtick. A Democrat could save a baby from a burning building and Calthrina would still find a way to criticize him.

[Calthrina950]

Really don't understand what is going through this dude's head. He votes with Trump less than 10% of the time. He voted for a $15 minimum wage.

He endorsed Cory Booker for god's sake!

Isn't this something? The Democratic Party isn't going to even allow Van Drew to cast a token "No" vote on an impeachment effort which is ultimately doomed to failure in the Senate, and because of that, he's switching parties? A confused and disheartening situation on all sides. It is true that this district is rapidly trending Republican, Van Drew won by a much smaller margin than had initially been expected, and he succeeded a long-time Republican incumbent who held the seat for more than two decades. On the other hand, party-switchers do not have an unparalleled history of success, and often do so out of personal selfishness.

I'm not sure what to think about this, but what I do know is that this makes it likely Collin Peterson will be the only Democrat in the entire House of Representatives to vote no on the articles of impeachment. Even in 1998, something on the order of six Republicans voted against Bill Clinton's impeachment. Never have we seen an impeachment as partisan and polarized as this one.

Nobody is forcing Van Drew to stupidly switch parties. Thats his decision. Whatever happens to him from this point onward is his fault and his alone.

lmao @ Calthrina blaming the Democratic Party. That's so incredibly on the nose..

It's interesting that as soon as I express my views on this issue, it's back to the same kind of attacks that I faced before taking my hiatus. But I'm not going to let it affect me. When making my observations on this, I was talking about the polls which we have seen conducted of the Democratic base, and what has been reported about the outrage concerning the Democratic Party's machine.

[Non Swing Voter]

didn't he barely win this seat against someone who was flamboyantly racist in 2018?  maybe the district was more republican than he thought and this is an excuse to keep his seat as he didn't do amazing against a terrible candidate in a democratic year.  That or he's just really dumb.  Isn't this district basically a mix of farms and the Atlantic City area?  seems like a very polarized district.

[Landslide Lyndon]

didn't he barely win this seat against someone who was flamboyantly racist in 2018?  maybe the district was more republican than he thought and this is an excuse to keep his seat as he didn't do amazing against a terrible candidate in a democratic year.  That or he's just really dumb.  Isn't this district basically a mix of farms and the Atlantic City area?  seems like a very polarized district.

Not barely but certainly by an underwhelming margin considering that his opponent was so awful the NRSC repudiated him.

[Penn_Quaker_Girl]

didn't he barely win this seat against someone who was flamboyantly racist in 2018?  maybe the district was more republican than he thought and this is an excuse to keep his seat as he didn't do amazing against a terrible candidate in a democratic year.  That or he's just really dumb.  Isn't this district basically a mix of farms and the Atlantic City area?  seems like a very polarized district.

Yup! The 2nd district covers almost all of South Jersey.  I suspect that a big part of it's conservative lean comes from the large number of retirees in and around Ocean and Atlantic City as well as the rural areas inland from the coast.

[Morning in Atlas]

Really don't understand what is going through this dude's head. He votes with Trump less than 10% of the time. He voted for a $15 minimum wage.

He endorsed Cory Booker for god's sake!

Naked opportunism, laziness, and grift. The guy was a puppet for the NJ machine throughout his career in the NJ State House, and was a mediocre backbencher here who kept his head down and did what he was told. Then, he saw his political fortunes fade away and jumped ship.

I guarantee you he'll become a mouthpiece for Trump soon enough.

[The Mikado]

I guarantee you he'll become a mouthpiece for Trump soon enough.

He will try, for the few months between now and when he loses his primary. However, if one thing is clear about Jeff Van Drew, it's that the man is kind of an idiot. He has never lived as a Republican and hasn't really internalized the script. He will make mistakes. He will say incredibly stupid things thinking that they're accurate representations of GOP policy, like the time Trump called for jailing women who have abortions and backed off when the religious right was like "WTF, that's not our stance."

[hurricanehink]

Ugh my congressman is the worst! Yes, I live in NJ-2, and yes, local Democrats are sick of him too. I’ll bet this goes back to Election Day 2019, when JVD’s team lost the state senate and assembly seats in his former legislative district (LD 1, also my home district). I’ve seen JVD’s rise, how he would often take positions that bucked the party, so long as it won him support back home in conservative Cape May County (home of many retirees, Coast Guard families, and seasonal business owners).

[Frenchrepublican]

https://twitter.com/kkondik/status/1206225042452803584?s=20

[Landslide Lyndon]

Yeah, I'm sure Van Drew will be a shoo-in for the Republican primary.

https://twitter.com/CongressmanJVD/status/1199054882948485122?ref_src=twsrc%5Etf...

[Canis]

lol remember when this clown voted "No" for speaker

[Penn_Quaker_Girl]

https://twitter.com/kkondik/status/1206225042452803584?s=20

Rare event, no? (A seat swinging from lean X to lean Y)?

[Dr Oz Lost Party!]

Unsurprisingly, his staff is beginning to quit.

https://twitter.com/mkraju/status/1206371842593894401

[InheritTheWind]

Yeah, I'm sure Van Drew will be a shoo-in for the Republican primary.

https://twitter.com/CongressmanJVD/status/1199054882948485122?ref_src=twsrc%5Etf...

lmao I feel like this just goes to show how little he actually thought through joining the GOP

[ON Progressive]

Unsurprisingly, his staff is beginning to quit.

https://twitter.com/mkraju/status/1206371842593894401

Not surprising, and I could see him having a hard time finding good replacements tbh.