Some of the state’s top Democrats, including Gov. Phil Murphy, Senate President Steve Sweeney and U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, have declined to endorse Van Drew’s re-election over the past week, with Murphy and Sweeney citing impeachment and Menendez deferring to the second congressional district’s Democratic County chairs.
Support for a switch was mixed on the Republican side.
Many local Republicans who have fought Van Drew in the decades before he ascended to Congress, including Cape May County Republican Chairman Marcus Karavan, have said he should remain in the Democratic Party.
State Sen. Michael Testa, the Cumberland County GOP chairman, on Thursday declined to say whether Van Drew should be welcomed into the fold.
Testa is an honorary chairman of Trump’s New Jersey re-election campaign.
State Sen. Joe Pennacchio, who is also an honorary chair of the president’s state re-election campaign, said his party should welcome Van Drew.
White House sources have told the New Jersey Globe that the president wants Van Drew to switch, and The Washington Post on Saturday reported Trump made a personal plea to Van Drew pushing the congressman’s defection this week.