In July 2009, 17,000 Democrats filled the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel, New Jersey for a Barack Obama rally in support of then-Governor Jon Corzine’s reelection campaign. They had originally planned for a Rutgers site but needed to move the rally to accomodate the growing crowd. Of course, it didn’t signal widespread support of Corzine and the incumbent Democrats went down in defeat that November.
A crowd roughly 10% the size of Obama’s July 2009 crowd shuffled into the Essex County College Gymnasium in Newark on Saturday for an Obama-Sherrill rally that conspicuously lacked the magic of the former president’s once formidable public events. In a city that’s only about 20% white? The majority white crowd didn’t seem like a native Brick City audience.
You could’ve found an equally large crowd at any number of competitive “Friday Night Lights” high school football games around the state!
And the tone was… depressing.
“Let’s face it, our country and our politics are in a pretty dark place right now,” a hoarse Obama griped. “It’s hard to know where to start because every day this White House offers up a fresh batch of lawlessness and carelessness and meanspiritedness and just plain old craziness.”
How inspiring and uplifting! Yikes. The joy is gone for East Coast Kamala. And to make the situation all the more boorish, we already litigated these accusations back in 2024, Save Jerseyans. The American people returned their verdict: the first popular vote victory for a Republican presidential nominee in 20 years and the closest New Jersey presidential contest since 1992. President Trump’s sub-six point loss in the Garden State was fueled in large part by massive defections in New Jersey’s urban, non-white core to the Trump coalition.
“And you are thinking about sitting out?” Obama angrily lectured reluctant Harris voters at the time. “Part of it makes me think, and I’m speaking to men directly, part of it makes me think that, well, you just aren’t feeling the idea of having a woman as president, and you’re coming up with other alternatives and other reasons for that.”
Shaming and belittling black men didn’t work then. It’s unlikely to work now, and definitely not if Sherrill’s lackluster Saturday night rally is any indication.
Even polls with Jack running behind have consistently shown the GOP nominee winning 20%+ of New Jersey black voters. The A+ AtlasIntel poll released on Halloween (showing a statistical tie between Ciattarelli and Sherrill) showed the Republican winning a majority of the black vote. Do I think that’s likely? No. Do I think the trend popping in almost every survey suggests deep and real problems for Sherrill in the black community? No doubt.
Barack’s influence is fading because his angry “bitter clinger” presentation is no longer popular. Sherrill is taking whatever she can get at this stage, granted, but 44’s fading star isn’t a hopeful sign for a Democrat victory in what’s increasingly looking like Purple Jersey.
MATT ROONEY is SaveJersey.com's founder and editor-in-chief, a practicing New Jersey attorney, and the host of 'The Matt Rooney Show' on 1210 WPHT every Sunday evening from 7-10PM EST.
