Gov. Sherrill stumps for Zack Mullock as Democrats push to oust Jeff Van Drew

VINELAND — Gov. Mikie Sherrill stumped for Democratic Cape May Mayor Zack Mullock on the eve of Election Day as he seeks to unseat GOP Rep. Jeff Van Drew before Van Drew can claim a fifth term in the House.

Though Democrats have held South Jersey’s 2nd Congressional District for only one year out of the last 30, they have been heartened in recent days by the party’s strong performance in pre-Election Day voting that they believe shows they may be able to oust an entrenched Republican who last won reelection by nearly 17 points.

“From everything I’ve seen, the momentum is growing,” Sherrill said at a Mullock rally on Monday. “We are seeing better and better numbers each day, and I think part of it is because we have such fantastic candidates.”

As of Monday morning, 109,080 New Jerseyans had voted in the 2nd District race, according to a New Jersey Monitor review of pre-Election Day returns.

Democrats hold the overall preelection edge. Among that party’s registered voters, 51,358 had cast ballots by mail or during the state’s nine-day in-person early voting period, compared to 37,766 for Republicans and 19,492 for unaffiliated voters.

The turnout represents a decline among Republicans and a slight increase among Democrats as compared to 2025, when New Jersey’s governorship and all 80 seats in the General Assembly came up for a vote. That year, 45,696 Republicans voted in advance of Election Day, and 48,170 Democrats did the same.

Mullock said the early returns are a mark of Democratic enthusiasm that could be seen even outside the figures.

“Everywhere we go, people are excited, and they’re willing to jump out and do these canvasses and do these phone banks,” he said. “I just think it’s hard to measure that energy in a poll. What I’m seeing on the ground is a lot of momentum. Hopefully that lasts through tomorrow.”

With Election Day so near, campaigns don’t have much to do aside from ensuring their voters cast their ballots, and Mullock said he intended to spend the time before polls close on Tuesday pushing them to do just that.

Sherrill was sending the same message, urging voters to turn out even as she acknowledged New Jersey’s 2nd District is difficult ground for Democrats.

“That’s what we’re working on today: getting out every single vote. Every vote counts,” she said, adding, “This is a hard place to win, but we can do it.”

Van Drew captured the district for Democrats when he was still in the party in 2018, but he switched his party affiliation to Republican over what he said was a values split with the Democratic Party.

Ron Filan, Van Drew’s campaign manager, said it was unsurprising to see a Democratic governor campaign for a member of her own party.

“It’s not the first time the governor has been here to campaign against Congressman Van Drew, nor will it be the last,” Filan said.

Despite the indicators of strong Democratic turnout, the 2nd District remains a steep uphill climb for the party.

Though Van Drew won it as a Democrat in 2018, its boundaries were redrawn in 2021 to make it more Republican. It shed all of its municipalities in Camden and Burlington counties — areas Democrats wanted to use to make the 3rd Congressional District safer for their party — and gained deeply Republican portions of Ocean County in exchange.

Trump won the 2nd District by 13 points in 2024, when Van Drew took it by nearly 17.