NJ-02: Five Democrats filed to take on freshman Rep. Jeff Van Drew, a former Democrat who defected to the GOP in December, but only two of them appear to have serious party support.
Political science professor Brigid Callahan Harrison has the endorsement of Sens. Robert Menendez and Cory Booker, as well as party leaders in six of the eight counties that make up New Jersey’s 2nd District. Mental health advocate Amy Kennedy, though, has the party backing in Atlantic County, which is by far the largest county in this South Jersey seat. The other contenders are West Cape May Commissioner John Francis, 2018 candidate Will Cunningham, and 2018 GOP candidate Robert Turkavage.
As we’ve written before, county party endorsements are typically very important in New Jersey primaries on both sides of the aisle. That's because, in many counties, endorsed candidates appear in a separate column on the ballot along with other party endorsees, a big deal in a state where party machines are still powerful. (This designation is known colloquially as the “organization line.”)
You can see an example of this on this 2018 primary sample ballot from Burlington County. Menendez and Van Drew, who was still a Democrat, appeared in the column identified as “BURLINGTON COUNTY REGULAR DEMOCRATS” along with party-backed candidates running for other offices. Lisa McCormick, who was challenging Menendez for renomination, was listed on her own in the second column while the three candidates running against Van Drew in the 2nd District, including Cunningham, each had a column entirely to themselves.
Harrison has the organization line in Burlington, Camden, Cape May, Cumberland, and Gloucester Counties, which together cast 46% of the vote in the 2018 primary. The New Jersey Globe’s David Wildstein writes that Salem County, which was another 8% of the vote, does not have an organization line, but party leaders are supporting Harrison there. Kennedy, though, has the line in Atlantic County, which made up 41% of the total vote. Party leaders in Ocean County, which makes up the balance of this seat, decided on Sunday not to back anyone.
Booker, though, gave Harrison some good news on Tuesday when he announced that he was rejecting the organization lines in Atlantic and Ocean Counties and creating his own. Booker said that he'd run with Harrison under his new line, a practice known as “bracketing.”
You can see an example of bracketing from the 2018 GOP primary in Burlington County, where Senate candidate Brian Goldberg and House contender (and eventual nominee) Seth Grossman bracketed together: The party endorsed candidates were listed in the first column, Goldberg and Grossman were together in the second column, and two other GOP House candidates were alone in the final two columns.
In Atlantic County, voters this year will see a column for the local party’s endorsed candidates, including Joe Biden and Kennedy, while Booker and Harrison will be bracketed together in a separate column. By bracketing with Harrison, Booker may be able to help her win over some of the voters who were already supporting him in his uncompetitive primary.
Van Drew, by contrast, managed to avoid a serious intra-party challenge. While plenty of local Republican leaders were initially skeptical about embracing the longtime Democrat, Donald Trump quickly threw his support behind him and helped Van Drew scare off any serious primary foes. This seat swung from 54-45 Obama to 51-46 Trump.