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The freshman Democrat, who represents a New Jersey district where President Trump is popular, told aides he would announce his switch next week.
Dec. 16, 2019
WASHINGTON — Representative Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey, a moderate Democrat who is among his party’s staunchest opponents of impeaching President Trump, told aides on Saturday that he is planning to switch parties and declare himself a Republican as soon as next week, just as the House is casting its historic votes on articles of impeachment.
At a White House meeting on Friday, Mr. Van Drew sought Mr. Trump’s blessing for the move, which could be critical to his ability to avoid a primary challenge next year, and the president urged him to make the jump, according to two Democrats and one Republican who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the talks were intended to be private.
Mr. Van Drew has spoken with senior advisers to Mr. Trump about announcing his switch at an event at the White House either immediately before or just after the House votes on two articles of impeachment, which is expected to happen on Wednesday, according to Republicans and Democrats.
Beyond the potential boost to Mr. Van Drew’s own political fortunes, the move would also provide a silver lining for Mr. Trump as he becomes the third president ever to be impeached. The president has characterized the drive to remove him as an entirely partisan exercise that will cost Democrats their majority in the House, and a high-profile Democratic defection could help bolster his case while allowing him to divert attention from the vote.
The decision by Mr. Van Drew reflects the heavy political consequences hanging over next week’s impeachment vote, particularly for moderate Democrats in districts that supported Mr. Trump in 2016. While there is little doubt that Democrats will have the votes to approve the charges against the president in a near party-line vote, a small number of their conservative-leaning members are deeply uncomfortable with the idea of taking part in a Democrat-only impeachment vote and are spending the weekend torn over how to proceed.
Mr. Van Drew did not respond to a request for comment.
Last month, Mr. Van Drew vowed in a two-hour teleconference that he would remain a Democrat.
“I am absolutely not changing,” he said, stating his lifelong position as a moderate Democrat.
But conversations between Mr. Van Drew and top advisers to Mr. Trump intensified in recent days, according to a Republican familiar with the discussions, with the lawmaker making clear that he was nervous about losing his seat, either in a Democratic primary or the general election.
Those talks came after Mr. Van Drew saw the results of a poll conducted this month that suggested that a vote against impeaching Mr. Trump would damage his chances of winning his Democratic primary. The poll, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times, showed that the overwhelming majority of Democratic primary voters — 71 percent — would be less likely to support his re-election if he opposed the charges against Mr. Trump.
A freshman lawmaker from a historically Republican-leaning southern New Jersey district, Mr. Van Drew has already made clear he will not support impeachment, which has prompted talk of a liberal primary challenger.
“I don’t see anything there worthy of actually taking a president out of office,” he said earlier in the week.
Mr. Van Drew was one of only two House Democrats who opposed the impeachment process when the party’s leaders brought the matter to a vote in October to lay out ground rules for the inquiry. That stance has made him the target of sharp criticism from progressive activists and protests outside his district office. Perhaps more notable, his state’s machine-aligned Democratic leaders have also gone public with their own discomfort over his stance.
“I am imploring you to vote in favor of impeachment,” Michael Suleiman, the Atlantic County Democratic chairman, wrote in a letter to Mr. Van Drew, warning about repercussions for other Democrats. “A ‘no’ vote on impeachment will suppress Democratic turnout down-ballot, which my organization cannot sustain,” he continued.
A former state senator, Mr. Van Drew represents a congressional district the president won by about 5 points in 2016. Mr. Van Drew won the seat more easily thanks to a Republican opponent who made racist comments and lost his backing from the national party.
But congressional Republicans were already focusing on Mr. Van Drew, considering him a top target in their effort to take back the House.
Mr. Van Drew kept his discussions about leaving the Democratic Party closely guarded. On Saturday afternoon, as word circulated about his switch, his re-election campaign emailed a fund-raising invitation for an event next month in New Jersey to benefit him and his fellow freshman Democrats in the state’s delegation.
“These frontline members are facing incredibly difficult re-election campaigns and are a critical piece of the puzzle as we work to protect our majority in the House,” the invitation said.
Mr. Van Drew may already have Democratic challenger. Brigid Harrison, a politics professor at Montclair State University, had been publicly signaling that she was considering a primary challenge to Mr. Van Drew. Already, she has met with many of the county Democratic leaders in the district, as well as Stephen M. Sweeney, the powerful State Senate president.
Now, she says an announcement about her candidacy as a Democrat is imminent.
“At the end of the day, whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican or an independent, what you don’t like is a traitor,” Ms. Harrison said in an interview. “So now, in addition to prioritizing his political career over the direction of the country, Congressman Van Drew is also a traitor to his voters.”
Mr. Van Drew has long had a difficult relationship with many Democrats in his home state, based in part on his support for gun rights. But during his years in the state legislature, he was an important Democratic vote for the southern block of the state, so he was largely spared from intraparty threats.
Still, once he was elected to Congress, Mr. Van Drew began to stray more visibly from the state delegation. He skipped a delegation meeting in Washington with Gov. Philip D. Murphy, the lone lawmaker from New Jersey’s 13 Democratic representatives and senators to do so.
And since he has been publicly indicating he will not vote for impeachment, party leaders in New Jersey have intensified their opposition. Mr. Van Drew had reportedly sought a letter of support from Democratic county leaders to help prop him up after his impeachment vote, but was denied.
Instead, Mr. Suleiman, the powerful Atlantic County chairman, sent the stern letter to Mr. Van Drew.
“Atlantic County Democrats have a tough time as it is facing 100 years of ‘Boardwalk Empire;’ we cannot afford to have Democrats sit on their hands in a presidential year when we usually perform well,” he wrote in a letter first obtained by The New Jersey Globe.
The drop-off in support from party leaders also comes after Mr. Van Drew failed to deliver legislative victories in his district last month. A slate that was publicly called “Team Van Drew” lost all three of its legislative seats, one of the few blue-to-red flips in the New Jersey off-year elections.
Mr. Van Drew would hardly be the first political moderate to change parties before what could be a difficult election. In December 2009, then-Representative Parker Griffith of Alabama, a freshman who was elected as a Democrat, became a Republican. But Mr. Griffith, with no Republican president in office to vouch for him, lost his primary the next year.
Jonathan Martin reported from Washington, and Nicholas Corasaniti from New York.
