President Donald Trump will host a campaign rally in New Jersey this month to support Rep. Jeff Van Drew’s re-election campaign.
The rally will take place in Wildwood, NJ at the Wildwoods Convention Center on January 28, according to the president’s campaign.
“This rally is to show support for Republican Representative Jeff Van Drew,” Principal Deputy Communications Director Erin Perrine said in a statement to Breitbart News. “President Trump supports Rep. Van Drew and endorses his re-election efforts.”
Rep. Van Drew, first elected as a Democrat, famously decided to flip to the Republican party as a result of the Democrat-led impeachment effort of President Donald Trump.
As a Democrat, Van Drew won by a seven-point margin in New Jersey’s Second Congressional rural/suburban district in 2018 that typically supports Republicans.
But Trump faces a steep barrier to be competitive in the state that typically votes for Democrats for president
Failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton won the state of New Jersey by 14 points in 2016, but the Second District voted for the Republican House of Representatives candidate with a 22 point margin at the time.
Van Drew appeared with President Trump in December 2019 to publicly announce his decision to switch parties.
“I believe that this is just a better fit for me,” Van Drew told reporters at the time. “This is who I am. It’s who I always was, but there was more tolerance of moderate Democrats, of Blue Dog Democrats, of Conservative Democrats, and I think that’s going away.”
Van Drew also plans to sign a GOP discharge petition on Tuesday that would force a floor vote on pro-life legislation if it gets 218 signatures.
Although the emphasis for the New Jersey rally was on support for Rep. Van Drew, the Trump campaign noted that President Trump had delivered for the state, which typically supports Democrats for president.
“New Jersey is flourishing under President Trump with 129,400 new jobs, including 9,600 new manufacturing jobs – the same manufacturing jobs President Obama said we would need a magic wand to get back into the United States,” Perrine told Breitbart News. “And now New Jersey has a strong Republican member to support President Trump as he continues to fight to Keep America Great.”