Cranford, NJ – Steve Fulop almost finished answering questions about his campaign for the governor on Saturday afternoon when he decided to ask his own question.
“How many of you think about the option option?” Fulop, the mayor of Jersey City, asked the few voters of the boxes gathered at the Cranford Community Center. Almost all hands rose.
It is the same question that Democrats have a fight against bones with National: how does the game win a surprising defeat against Donald Trump last year, when Trump obtained profits in the country, even in blue states like New Jersey?
Democratic voters in the state will have the first great opportunity of the parties to evaluate that question next week. New Jersey is one of the two states this year with the governor’s careers, and is the only state with played primary, with the voters who go to the surveys next Tuesday to choose their nominees.
The six Democratic candidates embody different paths for the party. There is a progressive progressive of Chusma, a veteran military who takes advantage of the 2018 game book of the game, a self -denominated “pragmatic progressive” that faces the establishment of the party, a moderate laser with the affordability, a legislator for a long time that he emphasizes his blue neck roots and a leader of the union that puts the teachers.
And they are quick to notice that the country is looking.
“I think it will accumulate the rhythm of what happens nationwide,” he said about Newark Ras Baraka, which is presented as the real progressive in the careers.
Democratic representative Josh Gottheimer, one of the most moderate candidates, also described the primaries as a “stimulus” for the party.
“We cannot follow the same path,” said Gottheimer on Saturday after a demonstration with followers at Lake Woodcliff. “We have to do things differently.”
Many of the Democratic voters who are chasing candidates are prioritizing the election as they break their options, according to conversations with almost 40 Democratic voters in New Jersey in recent days.
“We do not do it because Maga will take over New Jersey,” said Cheryl Ashcroft or Point Plelanant, who is supporting the Democratic representative. Mikie Sherrill because she believes that Sherrill has the best opportunity to defeat former assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli, the main leader of the Republican Party, who has Trump’s support.
‘It’s the economy, stupid’
Gottheimer is among the candidates who believe that Trump could obtain profits in the state last year, partly among the voters of the working class and color voters, by focusing on the economy and public safety.
Trump lost New Jersey for 6 percentage points, an improvement of 10 points on his margin in 2020. That was the second largest change towards Trump of any state.
“My lawn says everyone says:” Lower taxes, shirt values, “and they have said since I postulated for Congress for the first time,” said Gottheimer.
“I am a very heavy economic message, with lower taxes, and I think that is where the party must go,” he added later. “If families cannot afford to feed their children or put their backs or pay their rent or mortar, everything else, although it is critical, becomes secondary.”
A resident support of Lake Woodcliff Gottheimer called Nicole, who refused to share her last name, said she sees that Laimera as the best opportunity of Democrats to win in November and as a son of a candidate that her party should raise.
“I think it is important that our party moves away from the fags,” he said.
Steve Sweeney, a moderate president and former president of the state Senate who is also running for governor, said the Democrats have lost their course with voters like him, a former iron worker who does not have a university degree.
“They no longer vote for the Democrats, we are no longer talking about what they want to hear, which is the economy, stupid,” Sweeney told after a press conference in Camden, referring to the Democratic strategist James Carvilla del 1992 Presidential campaign.
‘Effective Government’
Sherrill, whom some consultant is the Democratic main front, has emphasized his service as a federal navy helicopter pilot while running for governor. She is looking to take advantage of the successful book of the democrats from the middle of the exams in 2018, when she and other candidates with a history of public services touch the camera.
The “obvious” way forward for the game, said Sherrill, is “governing effective.”
“The ruthless competition is what people in New Jersey want to see in the Government,” Sherrill told before marching in the Asbury Park’s pride parade. “And that is what I have always provided, and that is what I think contrasts with the most incompetent federal government that we have probably seen in this nation.”
Ken Urgo, 68, a galloway retired food service worker, said she is aligned with the far left, but is supporting Sherrill because she believes she is the most eligible candidate.
“I think Mikie Sherrill is a bit too cent for me, but I think she will take a penny to win this state,” Urgo said, and said Sherrill once was once the modern coalition of blue dogs, which lead or lead in 2023 “” “” “”
“I have the best history of any person in the career to build the types of teams and coalitions and elections they win,” Sherrill told Donald J. Carroll Jr. or Fanwood, another who pressed her on her way to victory in a match in a match in Watchung on Sunday night. Later, Carroll told that electability is “very, very important” for him.
Sherrill pointed out that the three mayors in the democratic La Raza – Fulop, Baraka and the former mayor of Montclair Sean Spiller – have never faced Republican opponents. She said the key is to establish “why the Republican candidate is not serving people well and why my candidacy will be so effective.”
Carroll was satisfied with Sherrill’s response and plans to support her in the race. But he is still worried that some voters can hesitate to support a candidate, pointing out the struggles of Vice President Kamala Harris against Trump last year. Although Trump won 84,000 additional votes in New Jersey compared to 2020, Harris won 388,000 Ferwer votes that Joe Biden four years before.
Anti-establishment
After Harris’s struggles last year, other Democratic candidates in New Jersey are pressing anti-establishment messages.
Fulop, the mayor of Jersey City, told the voters gathered in the Cranford Community Center that Harris finally lost because “a clear vision of what the United States of America would be widespread and dangerous, or a car that, which, conviction” could not articulate. “
“I think you are a candidate of thesement, you will lose,” Fulop after the event. “I think that the country’s mood has a clearly anti -stake with both Democrats [and] Republican for some time. “
Fulop has launched himself as the candidate who faces the political machine, and said he appeals to the “pragmatic progressive” voters. He has suggested that Democrats should distance themselves from Democratic governor Phil Murphy, since Republicans will seek to make the race a referendum about the administration of Murphy.
Baraka, or Newark, another main candidate in the primary, also said that Democrats must adopt a more aggressive approach and boost progressive policies, although he recently recognized that some, but suggests “ASE is too” and “black.”
“New Jersey is ready for something different,” said the debate, “not the weak play book of the Democratic Party.”
Baraka said Monday in an interview that voters “because seeing the Democrats are bold and exhibit some form of leadership.”
“Even the term ‘liberal’ makes people believe that we are soft, that we will do anything, we have no position, we have no plan, we have no direction. I think we must be, we need to show something, SaidereterrteTette A. He said a detention center, we think that the intrusion charges were removed later.
Chioma Nwankwo, 29, or Newark, who works in marketing, said he is inclined to support Baraka. She said that the Democratic leaders in Congress are “out of contact”, adding that Shey Gallina her party to be younger and “more receptive” and to focus on appealing to the voters of the working class and racial minorities.
Spiller, the president of the New Jersey Masters Union and former Mayor of Montclair, is also being launched as a candidate willing to assume interests entertaining, and comfortable Criticize your own party in the process.
Spiller did not comply with the fundraising threshold to qualify for recent debates, but his campaign has been promoted by millions of dollars of a Super Pac financed by the New Jersey Education Association, which leads. He retreated against the criticisms that quotas of the union of teachers will be used to support his campaign, noting that the union voted unanimously to support it and that he has historically supported his support. candidates
The option question
Persistent questions about which candidate can win underline how Democrats expect a competitive career in November, despite the typically blue tone of the state.
Murphy’s 2021 re -election career was closer than expected, which he said was later a “Canarian in the coal mine” three years before the presidential loss of the Democrats last year. Murphy defeated Ciattarelli for 3 points at that time, although he made a historical tendency of the election of a governor of the president’s opposite party.
While the Democrats now have that precedent on their side with a Republican in the White House, they face another wind against wind in front: more than 60 years have passed since the same party won three consecutive governors’ races in New Jersey.
And the Democrats hope to face Cattarelli again, they thought that he first has to win a primary disputed on Tuesday.
“This thing could be thin in November, and Jack Cattarelli is a hard candidate,” said Gottheimer. “This is not going to be a walk through the park for anyone.”