Early voting in New Jersey kicked off on Saturday, Save Jerseyans, and Democrats are marking the day by staging a Newark rally headlined by Barack Obama.
Republicans are playing a more subtle but intricate game, and they believe it will ultimately prove a superiorly-impactful strategy.
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The Republican National Committee (RNC) led by Ronna McDaniel (who visited Medford, New Jersey on Wednesday) is currently executing a “National Weekend of Action” which they say is part of an extensive grassroots effort underway across the Garden State.
“While Phil Murphy and Democrats are ‘shaking’ in their boots, the RNC’s data-driven ground game is fully focused on Get Out The Vote efforts as New Jersey kicks off Early Voting,” RNC Spokesperson Rachel Lee told Save Jersey. “We are working hand-in-glove with the New Jersey Republican Party to elect Jack Ciattarelli and Republicans up-and-down the ballot, and on November 2nd, the Garden State will fire Phil Murphy.”
The RNC says it’s logged over 1,150,000 voter contacts in New Jersey for Election 2021 and deployed 2,200 volunteers into the state over the past several months.
At the moment, the RNC says it’s $800,000 investment (double what the DNC committed to New Jersey this year) includes an election integrity task force, a political field team, data modeling support (which the RNC has improved in recent cycles with an eye on more state-specific voter targeting), and even assistance hunting down unreturned vote-by-mail ballots. It’s my understanding that the investment isn’t just for 2021 but 2022, too.
Volunteers from Maine, New Hampshire, and New York are also headed to New Jersey as part of a larger GOP mobilization effort.
The overall volunteer plan adds up to approximately 3.5 thousand volunteer shifts over the final two weeks of the campaign.
Grounds games tend to make the biggest different when the polls are close. New polling out late this week suggests the gubernatorial battle between Republican challenger Jack Ciattarelli and Governor Phil Murphy is now a single-digit race. New Jersey Republicans have often felt neglected in past cycles since Virginia races tend to get a higher level of attention from the D.C. operative class; when I spoke to the chairwoman this week in Medford, McDaniel assured me that her committee has committed to New Jersey and will continue to commit resources through Election Day.
So if November 2nd goes well? The RNC and the NJGOP with which it works closely will rightfully claim some of the credit.
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