DCCC adds Van Drew’s South Jersey district to 2026 target list

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is adding Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-Dennis) to its target list, putting New Jersey’s 2nd district on a growing roster of Republican-held seats the party says it can compete for in next month’s midterm elections.

The DCCC added NJ-2 to its “Districts in Play” program Friday as House Democrats expand their offensive map in the final weeks of the campaign.  The committee now lists 58 districts nationwide as part of its effort to win control of the House, where Democrats are three seats short of a majority.

Van Drew, a former Democratic state senator who switched parties after opposing President Donald Trump’s first impeachment, is seeking a fifth term in Congress.  Democrats are running Zach Mullock, the mayor of Cape May.

“No Values Jeff Van Drew is everything wrong with politics, and Jerseyans are fed up with his penchant for putting political expediency over his constituents,” said Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-Washington),  the DCCC chair.  “He is a spineless politician who prioritizes tax breaks for the wealthiest few while gutting health care and raising costs for his constituents. That’s why they’ll send him packing next month.”

A poll conducted last month by GQR, a Democratic firm, showed Van Drew with a 48%-39% lead over Mullock.

The firm did not release the full poll, and similar polling memos it released in advance of two other New Jersey races this year were wrong. In advance of the February special Democratic primary for Congress in the 11th district, they touted a polling memo that Tom Malinowski was 23 points ahead of the winner, now-Rep. Analilia Mejia (D-Glen Ridge); and before the 7th district primary, GQR maintained that Tina Shah was the “voters’ favorite in the Democratic primary.”

GQR said 97% of voters know Van Drew, but his favorables are split 48%-46%.

“He starts the race underwater with independent voters, 58 percent unfavorable to 34 percent favorable,” the pollster said in a September 19 memo to interested parties.  “Once voters hear biographical information about both candidates, the race is statistically tied 46 to 47 percent. In fact, Mullock takes a majority among independents with 52 percent to Van Drew’s 35 percent after biographical information.”

The 2nd district will be difficult for Democrats to crack: Donald Trump carried it in 2024 by 12.5 percentage points, and GOP gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli won it by 7 points last year.  The DCCC said Gov. Mikie Sherrill’s performance last year shows the South Jersey district could be competitive.

But Van Drew, who has held local, county, and state office since the 1990s, outpaced Trump in the last federal election, winning by 17 points; he won by 19 points in 2022.

The South Jersey lawmaker began airing a cable TV ad last month that attacks Mullock for supporting “the largest tax hike in American history” and claims the Democrat would increase energy bills.

“That’s why Jeff Van Drew is taking on the utility companies who raised our rates and saying no to the crazy radical socialists increasing our taxes,” his ad states.

Following the DCCC announcement, U.S. Senator Andy Kim said Mullock “will work with me to uplift our communities in this part of the state.”

“South Jersey deserves a leader in the House who will stand up for shore communities and support access to affordable healthcare for families and veterans,” Kim stated.

NJ-2 covers all or portions of eight South Jersey counties, including Atlantic, Cape May, Cumberland and Salem counties, and has moved substantially toward Republicans over the last decade.

Van Drew first won the congressional seat as a Democrat in 2018, succeeding retiring Republican Rep. Frank LoBiondo.  He switched parties in December 2019 and won re-election as a Republican in 2020, 2022 and 2024.

The last time New Jersey’s 2nd district ousted an incumbent congressman was in the Watergate year of 1974.  Four-term Rep. Charles Sandman (R-Erma) was re-elected in 1972 with 66% of the vote, but after getting crushed in his 1973 campaign for governor and steadfastly supporting President Richard Nixon during the House Judiciary Committee impeachment hearings, Democrat William Hughes (D-Ocean City) defeated Sandman by 16 points.

Democrats have struggled to threaten Van Drew since the party switch seriously.  His addition to the DCCC target list comes as the committee expands its battlefield well beyond the districts that were initially expected to decide control of the House.  The latest additions include Republican-held seats in Kansas, Michigan, Virginia and New Jersey.

The DCCC said it views suburban voters as a particular vulnerability for Van Drew and argued that Democratic performances in New Jersey’s 2025 elections provide a potential path to flipping the district.

The designation does not guarantee a particular level of DCCC spending in NJ-2, but it puts the district on the national committee’s offensive map as Democrats decide where to deploy money and other resources during the final month of the campaign.