Before he switched political parties and defrauded his supporters in January, Jeff Van Drew’s career was fueled by South Jersey Democrats, funded by South Jersey Democrats, and hoisted into Congress by South Jersey Democrats during the blue wave of 2018.
Now he has pledged his “undying loyalty” to Donald Trump and his creeping authoritarianism, which means he is prepared to help Trump gut the Affordable Care Act, poison the planet, slash entitlements, weaken gun laws, and screw New Jersey taxpayers.
So it is no coincidence that Democrats seeking to challenge Van Drew in the 2nd District this November have lined up from Salem to Galloway, many of them highly appealing and eminently electable.
But it is no surprise that Brigid Callahan Harrison stands out in this group.
The political scientist from Longport, a highly-credentialed author and academic at Montclair State, was the first to denounce Van Drew’s political cowardice when the Congressman voted against impeachment hearings in October, and called him out for being complicit in Trump’s perversion of democracy.
Then, “after a week of sleepless nights,” Harrison set out to work — lining up support from party chairs inside her district, writing op-eds that explicated Van Drew’s political impotence, winning endorsements from labor and Senate President Steve Sweeney, and setting herself up as a formidable primary challenger to an incumbent.
That was enough to literally drive Van Drew into the arms of Trump.
This is the kind of tenacity and leadership that merits support.
Harrison has pulled out to a considerable lead for the nomination, with six of the eight county chairs already committed to her.
But a big hurdle still remains: Atlantic County, which holds a sizable volume of district votes, doesn’t hold its convention until Sunday; and county chair Michael Suleiman has not declared his preference, which creates some unwelcome mystery at a time when the party should coalesce behind a candidate to prepare to take on Van Drew and the Trump war chest.
“Obviously, Brigid knows our district well,” Suleiman conceded last week, “but given the field, it only seems right for me to stay neutral.”
That is understandable, if impractical. Harrison’s chief competition is Amy Kennedy, a former teacher from Brigantine who is married to former Congressman Patrick Kennedy (son of Ted). She has dedicated her career to addiction and mental health, but her stance on marijuana (she favors decriminalization) is problematic for a party that largely embraces legalization.
The field also includes Will Cunningham, whose inspirational journey began with childhood homelessness and poverty in Vineland; today, he is a chief investigator for the powerful House Oversight Committee. And there are others, including Ashley Bennett, the charismatic Atlantic County freeholder.
But Harrison, as most county committees have concluded, clearly stands out.
She is a seminal thinker and a superb communicator, is equally fluid on state and federal issues, and is exasperated by the unmet economic and transit needs of her massive district: “South Jersey has been the neglected stepchild for as long as I can remember,” she said last week. “We’ve been in a downward spiral since the first wave of casino development. And contributing to this is a lack of representation on the federal level.”
So Harrison, a centrist, will focus on infrastructure, jobs, and investment. But for someone whose late husband’s medical bills reached $80,000 in the final year of his life, health care will always anchor her policy agenda.
This is a top-tier race, and with the balance of Congressional power at stake, this is not the time to test out a political neophyte with a famous last name.
The 2nd District needs a representative in Washington, not someone who feeds Trump’s psychosis of polarization, not someone who bailed out on his constitutional obligation by thumbing his nose at checks and balances and the rule of law.
Van Drew has to go, and Harrison is the best candidate to replace him. Atlantic County needs to jump on this wave.
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