Swing district New Jersey voters back President Trump on impeachment, immigration, and trade, which could spell danger for Reps. Jeff Van Drew (D-NJ) and Andy Kim (D-NJ), according to a report released Sunday.
House Majority Forward, a Democrat group associated with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), released a report on white college-educated and non-educated voters in New Jersey’s Second and Third Congressional Districts and found strong support for Trump going into to next year’s presidential election.
Voters in the focus group found that Trump is a businessman, unlike “mostly useless” politicians. They also thoughts that Trump is working to reverse America’s decline and bring back companies to the United States.
“I watched regulation send out entire industries to other countries,” one New Jersey voter said.
Many voters said that Trump, and the Republican Party by extension, are fighting to put America first by emphasizing pro-borders, pro-American jobs, and “take care of us,” while the Democrats are helping non-citizens.
The memo found that “most of the respondents– across all of the groups– said they side with Trump on immigration.”
“Almost to a person, immigration was described as a matter of bringing “control” to our borders and immigration system,” the memo added.
The voters said that Democrats were often cited as the party that cares about “human rights” such as “gay rights.”
The focus group members also found that the impeachment inquiry was “dominating” the Democrat agenda.
New Jersey’s Second and Third Congressional Districts represent two districts that Trump won during the 2016 presidential election and Democrats flipped during the 2018 midterm elections. Republicans hope to flip 19 congressional districts during the 2020 congressional elections so that they can retake the House majority.
The House Majority Forward report found that many New Jersey voters have Trump’s backing.
“Trump has some standing with many of these voters,” the report contended.
As Democrats move forward with their impeachment inquiry against Trump, many New Jersey voters found that the impeachment inquiry was politically charged.
The Democrat memo found that several focus group members dismissed the impeachment inquiry as “politics” and few called the president’s call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky a “crime.”
“The inherent sense of corruption of all politicians allowed space for many to believe that what Trump did was commonplace, and ultimately several were ready to let Trump off the proverbial hook by characterizing the charges as ‘politics’ without digging deeper to determine if the charges are impeachable or not,” the report found.
The focus group could suggest that New Jersey voters’ backing of Trump and his policies could endanger Van Drew and Kim.
Van Drew and Kim are rated as two of the most endangered New Jersey incumbents by the Cook Political Report as well as Inside Elections.
Conservative operatives said that this report means that both Democrats could likely lose their next election.
“The findings by Nancy Pelosi’s dark money group make it clear as day: With President Trump driving Republican turnout, Andy Kim and Jeff Van Drew are toast,” said Michael McAdams, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC).
The American Action Network is spending $300,000 on television ads attacking Kim for supporting the impeachment inquiry.
American Action Network spokesman Calvin Moore said in a statement:
This is proof positive that the Democrats’ crusade to impeach Trump will have grave consequences for New Jersey Democrats. Andy Kim has toed the ‘resistance’ party line every step of the way. And no amount of political posturing from Jeff Van Drew will be enough to save him when the only thing voters know is that his party is obsessed with impeachment rather than helping achieve progress on border security and trade.
However, despite both Democrats’ vulnerabilities, Van Drew and Kim have taken different approaches towards impeachment.
Kim voted for a House resolution formalizing the rules and procedures surrounding the impeachment inquiry against Trump, while Van Drew backed the bill.
Kim said in October that Democrats cannot “overlook” Trump’s “abuse of power,” while Van Drew has said that he remains “concerned” about impeachment “tearing the country apart.”
Sean Moran is a congressional reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.