A conservative activist looking to get a ballot harvesting initiative up and running in New Jersey tells The Federalist that the state GOP is more interested in helping their preferred Republican gubernatorial candidate — marked as a “Never Trumper” — win in 2025 than helping the soon-to-be GOP presidential nominee take back the White House in November.
Deep Blue New Jersey has a chance to turn red this election year, some very enthusiastic Republicans insist. But a local GOP chair tells me that a state party “drowning in factionalism” could snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
‘Not Their Priority’
As The Federalist first reported in March, New Jersey conservative icon Dominick “Mick” Spadea and his political action committee, Fix Jersey Now, have proposed a targeted — and legal — ballot collection program backed by “research, analysis, strategies and coordination for identifying voters.” The initiative, according to documents obtained by The Federalist, would use “proprietary analysis” to reach out to “those who do not vote, then develop a targeted message that will engage and speak to those specific register[ed] but non-voting residents.”
The conservative group for months has been trying to get the New Jersey Republican Party and the Republican National Committee to buy in and beat Democrats at a ballot harvesting game they’ve been winning for years.
But Spadea claims state party leaders aren’t all that interested in helping former President Donald Trump beat President Joe Biden — or whoever ends up being the Democrats’ candidate come November. They’ve got
