Republican influencer reveals plans to turn New Jersey red after helping Trump win Pennsylvania
Activist Scott Presler is forging relationships along the New Jersey and Pennsylvania border to hand both states to Republicans in future elections.
A conservative influencer who helped President-elect Donald Trump claim victory in Pennsylvania is now focusing on New Jersey—a state that he suggests could flip red in upcoming elections.
In November, Vice President Kamala Harris secured victory in New Jersey with 52% of the vote, defeating President-elect Donald Trump by just under six points in a state that was never considered a battleground. The gap between the two candidates was much tighter than in 2020, when President Biden carried the state by almost 16 points.
Some analysts now suggest New Jersey has transitioned from a blue state to a swing state.
Scott Presler, the founder of Early Vote Action, a Political Action Committee (PAC), appeared to agree with the sentiment during a conversation with Fox News Digital.
"We are going to use the Pennsylvania model of voter registration and not reinvent the wheel, but just take all of those things we learned and apply them to New Jersey. And we're going to play it smarter, not harder," he said.
Presler said his work in Pennsylvania for the 2024 election was an attempt to build up infrastructure for Republicans that was "lacking" in past election cycles. He revealed that his work in the state focused on three main elements: education, ground game and voter registration.
"One of the biggest hurdles that we had going into the 2024 presidential is kind of getting conservatives to get on board with mail-in voting, with early voting, understanding our all of the above approach to ultimately trying to get Pennsylvania to swing in Donald Trump's favor," he added.
Presler said that Republicans over the last four years have had difficulties overcoming the Democrat's advantage in voter registration. In 2020, Democrats had a 650,000-person registration advantage. Today, that margin has shrunk by 300,000.
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"I'm a numbers guy. I always look at things from a mathematical perspective," Presler said, noting that he focused on significant demographics that may be willing to support Trump.
"We went to the truck stops to talk about mail-in voting with that community. They may not show up on Election Day. There are 90,000 Amish, and I know that Fox News Digital even had a team follow us with our work going to farmers markets and Lancaster," he said. "There are 800,000 veterans. So, we went to the VFW and the American Legion. There are 930,000 hunters. So, we went to the gun stores and the gun ranges."
Above all, Presler said the "secret sauce" to winning Pennsylvania in 2024 was stopping the "proverbial bleeding" in the big cities and bumping up the rural turnout.
Next week, Presler is heading to the Sussex County Christmas Party in New Jersey. The area borders Pike County, a red rural Pennsylvania county. His organization aims to forge relationships on the Pennsylvania and New Jersey border.
Presler has also hired staff to do voter registration on the Wildwood boardwalk all throughout the spring and summer—not only registering New Jersey voters but also "double dipping" and tapping into the Pennsylvania vote.
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"Our staff are going to help New Jersey, and after we help New Jersey in 2025, we're going to ask New Jersey and say, ‘Hey, will you come across the border legally and help Pennsylvania with our gubernatorial election in 2026?’" he said.
President-elect Donald Trump held a rally in Wildwood during his 2024 campaign. Presler noted that while a lot of people made fun of Trump for holding a rally there, they didn't understand that the area has a certain political significance.
"Wildwood is where Philly goes to the beach," he said.
New Jersey last voted for a Republican presidential candidate in 1988, when Vice President George H. W. Bush defeated Democratic Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis. The state had voted for Republican candidates from 1968 until 1992 when the state kicked off its ongoing blue voting trends.
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