Rep. Jeff Van Drew (NJ-2), who was elected to the Home of Representatives as a Democrat earlier than switching events and declaring his “timeles
Rep. Jeff Van Drew (NJ-2), who was elected to the Home of Representatives as a Democrat earlier than switching events and declaring his “timeless help” for President Donald Trump, has gained reelection.
The now-Republican first-term Congress member defeated his Democratic challenger, Amy Kennedy (sure, she’s a kind of Kennedys), in keeping with a name by Determination Desk.
Van Drew, a dentist, spent a long time in native politics after which New Jersey’s state Senate as a Democrat. And when he determined to run for the open Second District congressional seat being vacated by its longtime consultant, a retiring Republican, in 2018, nationwide Democrats have been thrilled.
Occasion leaders seen Van Drew as a robust recruit, partially as a result of he had a pro-business report and typically sided with Republicans on cultural points. Progressives have been much less thrilled along with his candidacy for this identical purpose, however Trump gained this South Jersey district by 4.6 proportion factors in 2016, so Democratic leaders thought a reasonable nominee was wanted.
Within the 2018 midterms, Van Drew did find yourself profitable pretty simply, and his victory helped Democrats regain the bulk within the Home of Representatives for the primary time in eight years.
After which the difficulty began.
Van Drew disdained a few of the priorities of the Democrats’ progressive wing, together with Medicare-for-all and the Inexperienced New Deal, however he was hardly alone in that (Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi, as an example, opposes each). He additionally was a staunch opponent of the liberal effort to question Trump based mostly on particular counsel Robert Mueller’s findings — however there, additionally, Pelosi and plenty of different reasonable Democrats have been equally reluctant for a lot of 2019.
But the politics of impeachment shifted after a whistleblower’s revelation that Trump had pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to announce an investigation of the Bidens. In September, Pelosi introduced that she supported an impeachment inquiry, and most different reasonable Democrats went along with her.
Van Drew was an uncommon exception. He was considered one of simply two Home Democrats to vote no on a decision setting guidelines for the impeachment inquiry. And by December, when the Home was about to carry its closing vote on impeachment, phrase leaked out that Van Drew was planning to modify events.
He made the swap shortly after voting no on the impeachment articles. “That is only a higher match for me,” Van Drew mentioned, whereas sitting subsequent to Trump within the Oval Workplace. “It’s who I’m. It’s who I all the time was, however there was extra tolerance of reasonable Democrats, of Blue Canine Democrats, of conservative Democrats. And I feel that’s going away.”
“You might have my timeless help,” he continued, addressing Trump, including, “all the time.”
Van Drew’s occasion swap enraged the Democratic base and earned him a robust challenger in Amy Kennedy, a former trainer who married former Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) — the late Sen. Ted Kennedy’s son.
Amy Kennedy beat again the South Jersey Democratic machine’s most popular candidate to win a surprisingly giant victory within the major. She then raised hundreds of thousands to tackle Van Drew within the common election, and shortly handed him in polls.
However Van Drew believed that, in backing Trump, he was extra in contact with what the voters of his district needed. And although Trump has misplaced reelection, Van Drew has survived.