MARLBORO, NEW JERSEY – A group consisting of 200 grassroots activists and volunteers crammed into Renzo’s pizzeria in South Jersey on a late October evening to watch the live shoot of “Wise Guys,” a Newsmax program hosted by John Tabacco. The event took place a week before Election Day, in a part of the Garden State historically known for being a Republican stronghold. The theme of the evening’s show was “Can New Jersey Turn Red?” The crowd was buzzing with hopeful energy: for the first time in decades, the Garden State is on the national radar in a presidential election year due to its remarkably high early vote turnout for President Trump.
The panel of guests included several Wise Guys regulars, plus Mike Crispi, an up-and-coming figure in New Jersey Republican politics. A man still in his early thirties, Crispi has already made a name for himself as a Jersey firebrand with an impressive resume: congressional candidate, political talk show host, and now, founder of the America First Republicans of New Jersey (or “AFRNJ” for short).
Plastered over the walls of the Renzo’s were signs emblazoned with the words “America First Republicans of New Jersey,” in bold typeface. Between bites of pizza and sips of wine — and Diet Coke, for the teetotalers paying tribute to President Trump — the bustling crowd watched the Italian haunt transform into a makeshift convention hall, with studio lighting and a litany of special guest speakers to match. The signs made it unmistakable who the event’s organizer was: the America First Republicans, and their ringleader, Mike Crispi, the charismatic rock star of the group decked out in pinstripes, was an unmistakable presence throughout the evening.
The Renzo’s Wise Guys event would be the 28th of such events organized by AFRNJ over the last year. The grassroots organization has been crisscrossing the Garden State nonstop, sometimes hosting multiple events —in multiple cities, some on the same night — tracking Donald Trump’s own busy schedule. The group’s mission, as Mike Crispi explains, has been to turn out the vote for Donald Trump in record numbers. The 28 events Crispi’s organization has personally commandeered in 2024 are far and away more than any other Jersey-based grassroots group — or political group of any sort dedicated to pro-Trump voter outreach. AFRNJ has also recruited over 1,000 volunteers on a shoestring budget, who have appeared at 100 events across New Jersey advocating for President Trump and his policies.
The group had been planning events as early as January. But it really put itself on the map after President Trump’s record-breaking rally that took place in Wildwood in early May. At that point, Wildwood was Trump’s biggest rally (it has since been rivaled by Butler and Madison Square Garden). Over 100,000 people, the overwhelming majority being Jersey natives, flooded the Jersey Shore to hear Donald Trump speak. As a result of his outreach efforts, Mike Crispi landed a speaking role at Wildwood before the President took the stage. In his trademark raspy voice, Crispi roused the crowd with a no-holds-barred exhortation, and announced a Get Out The Vote initiative, which Crispi called “Project 14,” a reference to the Garden State’s 14 electoral votes. The goal of the initiative, Crispi explained, was to get Jersey residents to register 14 “low-propensity” (i.e., voting groups that typically do not show up to vote for Republicans in massive numbers, like young people and certain racial minorities) people within their circle of contacts and add them to Republican voter rolls.
The success of the effort endeared Crispi to not only his growing Jersey fandom, but also caught the eye of a special person. As he was flying to the venue, Donald Trump watched Crispi’s stirring remarks from his plane, and lavished praise on Crispi as soon as he took the stage:
“A man that made a hell of a speech today … man did he make a good speech! Thank you, Mike. I watched you from the plane flying overhead and I said, ‘that guy’s good.’ And I know you have big plans for the future and we’re with you. A good man”.
Crispi’s efforts represent a broader grassroots-led movement to change the political tides of the Garden State, which has not voted for a Republican president in over thirty years. At first glance, Jersey would appear to be a lost cause for any dedicated Republican commitment. Although the Garden State has scattered pockets of Republican voters, it has long been politically associated with other Democratic strongholds such as adjacent New York. It has not voted for a Republican president since 1988 and President Trump lost the state by double digit margins in his previous two elections. For these reasons, it has not been on the radars of national Republican groups, who have long ignored New Jersey for its perceived Democratic bent.
But that string of Democratic dominance could be changing. Recent trends suggest that New Jersey, if not yet an outright swing state like neighboring Pennsylvania, is at least inching closer in that direction. Just three years ago, the Republican candidate for Governor, Jack Ciattarelli, lost his race by a mere two percentage points to Phil Murphy. Since then, the political winds in New Jersey have blown decidedly in a Trumpian direction. Just three years later, continuing its rightward move, it could be on the verge of voting for its first Republican president in over three decades.
“New Jersey is not as blue as people think,” Crispi said when asked to assess the state’s politics. “Republicans came within 3 points of winning the Governor race in 2021. President Trump has a groundswell of enthusiasm unlike any political figure in this state and therefore we fully believe it’s in play.”
That bold man’s bold assertion would seem to be supported by the close gubernatorial result. New Jersey also has a penchant for electing Republicans in statewide offices. After all, this is the state of Chris Christie, who, though he now suffers from a severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome, initially backed the 45th President during his 2016 campaign. A Republican, Christie stepped down from office in 2018, which further shows that New Jersey has been hardly averse to electing Republicans even recently.
But one might argue even though New Jersey might not be allergic to Republicans, MAGA Republicans of the breed of Mike Crispi and other ascendant candidates vying for statewide office – like Ed Durr, a former truck driver-turned-politician who is vying to outflank the establishment candidate to the right in the 2025 race for governor — are far less electable. But that is probably not true. For his part, Durr, sensing an opportunity, has waded increasingly into the MAGA waters, embracing Donald Trump in a way that other Jersey statewide Republicans – like senate candidate Curtis Bashaw – have thus far shied away from.
Though he didn’t put it in these exact terms, Crispi describes the NJ state GOP as being in a sort of civil war. At one side are the establishment types, representative of the old guard, the regnant leadership class that includes such politicos as Curtis Bashaw. These types are still beholden to Chris Christie, who remains an influential powerbroker behind the scenes. These politicians give their support to Donald Trump in public, while counting down the days until he leaves politics forever in private. They so long to return to the Republican Party prior to Donald Trump – the party of Mitt Romney and John McCain, which, in their view, was a Golden age of establishment dominance — where MAGA agitators were not a problem.
The Christie-led establishment has a very rosy view of the era before Trump because it allowed them to be lovable losers, without having their feet ever held to the fire by MAGA-types, like Crispi, who are really the only ones willing to hold them accountable. The Jersey establishmentarians — like their DC counterparts — have long profited off the endless wars and neoliberal policies that have resulted in hundreds of billions of dollars being sent to hopeless causes overseas. They also fully embrace unfettered free trade, marching to the beat of the drums of their Wall Street overlords, while simultaneously advocating for globalist policies that have outsourced industrial jobs to countries like China and Mexico. They also have long sponsored policies that replace native born New Jerseyans with third world migrants, many of whom are low-skilled laborers at best, violent criminals at worst. The demographic shift in New Jersey has been noticeable for quite some time – and deeply unpopular among Jersey natives, who observe their communities becoming less recognizable now almost by the day. Immigration is something of a crucible that has animated the populist sentiment throughout New Jersey’s Republican Party, in a similar way that it has catalyzed strong emotions which have fueled Donald Trump’s MAGA movement writ large.
In speaking to this contest of worldviews, Crispi says: “New Jersey Republicans are craving authentic leaders who embrace the MAGA message.” By authenticity, he is referring to the deep-seated problems affecting the nation that Donald Trump alone has been able to verbalize in a way that has found mass appeal among both residents of New Jersey and the country overall. Donald Trump’s authenticity, in contrast with Chris Christie’s fake “tell it like it is” bravado, is also distinguished from the latter by its substance. It’s not brash for the sake of triggering liberals simply. Rather, Trump’s brashness — like Crispi’s — serves a greater purpose: it speaks to the urgency of our national crisis, which so many politicians have blithely ignored for so long – from our gargantuan national debt to our catastrophe at the southern border.
It also speaks to the disparity between the political brass and the grassroots, who perceive the dangers that the former either ignore or cannot recognize themselves. As Crispi puts it: “When members of the statewide political establishment (many still loyal to Chris Christie) attempt to harass, silence or shut down our events, we have fearlessly carried on. This model can be replicated throughout the country. A big part of President Trump’s legacy will be the movement he started that will affect local, statewide, and federal politics for generations to come.”
The contempt for the burgeoning grassroots movement has generated a firestorm of controversy among the legacy New Jersey press. In recent months, hit piece after hit piece has been written about Crispi, Congressman Jeff Van Drew (NJ-2), Dr. Stephen Soloway, a successful rheumatologist, author, and longtime friend of President Trump’s who serves as co-chair of the AFRNJ, Cynthia Hughes, founder of a January 6th advocacy group, and other friends of the pro-Trump movement in Garden State Republican politics. The effort, of course, is nothing but a smear campaign, using a mix of gaslighting and rank lying, designed to alienate would-be supporters from joining their cause. The irony is that these techniques, often associated with the political Left and Democrats at the national level, are almost certainly being financed — or at least, supported by — elements of the Republican establishment within New Jersey. Their smear campaign is taken from the same, worn-out playbook used by the national press against Trump and his supporters, who have been relentlessly demonized as racists, Nazis, and more recently, “human garbage,” over the last eight years.
Happily, these “hit pieces” are mostly falling on deaf ears . If anything, they are only fueling the publicity and notoriety of groups like the AFRNJ, making them stronger in the long run. There is good reason to believe all the hard work is paying off. On October 30th, Elon Musk, who is perhaps President Trump’s highest profile celebrity surrogate this cycle, tweeted “Republican early votes now exceed Democrat votes in New Jersey, normally a Democrat-leaning state!” Musk responded to a post from America, Musk’s pro-Trump PAC, which reported that New Jersey Republicans have taken a lead over their Democratic counterparts – 144,644 to 139,999.
Other Trump advocates have noticed the Trump Garden State groundswell too. Laura Loomer, a firebrand in her own right, posted on her X account a screenshot reportedly from Kamala Harris’ campaign targeting voters from New Jersey. The screenshot included a message from the Harris campaign offering $200 to New Jersey residents to “talk to their friends about Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.” The fact that Kamala feels enough pressure to recruit what her campaign calls “voting ambassadors” in New Jersey, a state that still has a reputation for being a rock-ribbed Democratic stronghold, demonstrates the power of groups like AFRNJ – and is further evidence that their strategy to unapologetically embrace Donald Trump and his policies is not just effective, but also having a national impact.
Which all makes sense, considering the demographics of New Jersey – the Garden State is home to sprawling communities of Italians, Irish, Hispanic, and working-class voters that increasingly make up Donald Trump’s core constituency. These are not the country club Republicans from New Haven – the type that were naturally drawn to the Bushes and the old guard who would rather coddle serious problems in politically correct language, even as America was being sold out to China, India, and Mexico.
In addition to the natural political affinities between New Jersey voters and the MAGA movement, Donald Trump has his own share of personal connections to the Garden State too. He owns a lavish estate and golf course in Bedminster, his sanctuary during the summer months, and has broader ties to New Jersey’s political and cultural scene through Bedminster. He has been known to host fundraisers for his campaign as well as press conferences from his majestic golf club. Outside groups located in New Jersey — such as Cynthia Hughes’s Patriot Freedom Project – frequently host fundraisers and events there during the season. These events are regularly attended by MAGA luminaries, including President Trump himself, who has been known to make the occasional appearance. Likewise, Bedminster has played host to numerous golf tournaments in recent years. This includes the annual tournament hosted by the LIV Golf tour, which used Bedminster as a venue in both 2022 and 2023, with President Trump in attendance.
While not the manufacturing behemoth of neighboring Pennsylvania, New Jersey is still home to plenty of farmland — and industry. This is true despite its modest size and reputation for being a state with a sizable urban population. Outside the major transportation hubs like Newark and Jersey City, the Garden State boasts a significant rural and suburban population – home to millions of voters who lean conservative and make up Donald Trump’s natural voting base. And yet, many of these voters are still registered Democrat, being the sons and daughters of the old Democratic coalition. This coalition was composed of “blue dog” groups: such as union workers that have a long lineage of voting for Democratic candidates from Franklin Roosevelt to Bill Clinton. These voters now feel disenfranchised and alienated by the left-wing lurch of today’s Democrats, who have deviated far from their parents’ and grandparents’ party. The old Democrats are increasingly disgusted by woke policies like transgender surgeries for inmates, placing tampons in boys’ bathrooms at school, and giving voting rights to illegal aliens, now centerpieces of the party platform.
This growing coalition of former Democratic voters includes racial minorities – in particular, a growing number of black and Latino men – who are fleeing the Democratic plantation in droves and jumping aboard the Trump Train. These groups also happen to comprise a rising share of the Jersey electorate. Accordingly, MAGA Republicans in New Jersey and elsewhere can tap into a growing reservoir of new Republicans, the low-propensity types that Crispi had in mind when he spearheaded “Project 14.” This has ignited groups like AFRNJ, which have picked up on these developments before virtually anyone else, and put them ahead of the pack.
So much of the hostility directed at Crispi and his group is the product of a jealous old guard, which have been collectively bamboozled by the tectonic shift in New Jersey Republican politics in recent years. The old guard has been caught with their tail between their legs and they have no idea how to respond. Stuck in their tired old ways, they cannot adapt quick enough. When Donald Trump took his charge against DC’s Swamp eight years ago, he set off a revolution whose aftershocks continue to reverberate to this day, and have begun trickling down to state and local levels.
And the situation in New Jersey is not unique. Nationwide, the Republican Party at state levels across the board is experiencing an insurgency of Trump-inspired voices like Mike Crispi, who are rising quickly through the ranks, fueled by the grassroots coalition that is the 45th President’s base of supporters. These candidates, not Chris Christie and his acolytes, are the future of the Republican Party – because they are smart enough to know what time it is, they understand the policies and language – or, as Crispi calls it, “authenticity” – that has widespread appeal with voters. And they are smart, bold, and unafraid — essential qualities for these polarized times, which includes challenges like censorship and a weaponized justice system that previous generations of politicos never had to deal with.
They are Donald Trump’s best students, internalizing the lessons that have worked for the 45th President over the last eight years, and have been inspired to carry the torch of the MAGA movement long into the future. It is for this reason why Mike Crispi and the America First Republicans of New Jersey have over just a few short months made such an impact on the Garden State – and will continue to grow bigger and bigger, fueled by the support of the grassroots, to the point of eventually becoming the kingmakers in their state. As the saying goes, first they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
If history is any tell, it is a fool’s errand to bet against Trump – those people and groups who have been with him since the beginning will be rewarded as tomorrow’s leaders. Mike Crispi and the AFRNJ certainly belong among that lot, and, as the young man likes to say: they are just getting started.
Paul Ingrassia, a graduate of Fordham University and Cornell Law School, is an Attorney; Communications Director of the NCLU; a two-time Claremont Fellow, and is on the Board of Advisors of the NYYR Club and the Italian American Civil Rights League. He writes a widely read Substack that is regularly posted on Truth Social by President Trump. Follow Paul on X @PaulIngrassia, Substack, Truth Social, Instagram, and Rumble.
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AMAC or AMAC Action.
Read full article here
