Cape May Mayor Zack Mullock opened his campaign’s Atlantic County office this month with a speech built around an unusual centerpiece for a Democratic candidate, extended passages from Ronald Reagan’s farewell address as president, delivered on January 19, 1989. Speaking to a packed room in a suburban South Jersey community, Mullock read from Reagan’s closing message about immigration and national renewal, using the Republican icon’s own words to frame the stakes of his challenge against four term incumbent Jeff Van Drew in New Jersey’s 2nd Congressional District.

The passage Mullock chose focused on Reagan’s description of immigration as central to American vitality, the idea that each wave of newcomers had kept the country perpetually renewed and at the forefront of the world, and his warning that closing the door to new arrivals would cost the nation its leadership position globally. Mullock’s decision to build a campaign moment around that specific message, delivered with the current administration’s immigration enforcement posture clearly in mind, was a deliberate contrast, an attempt to position his campaign as more aligned with a version of Republican philosophy that predates the party’s current direction than Van Drew himself is.

A District That Has Only Flipped Once Since 1995

Mullock secured the Democratic nomination in June, defeating three primary opponents to earn the right to challenge Van Drew, who is seeking a fifth term representing a district that stretches across Atlantic, Cape May, Cumberland, and Salem counties along with parts of Gloucester and Ocean counties. The matchup carries real historical weight for Democrats hoping to flip the seat, since the only time the party has won the district since 1995 came with Van Drew himself as their nominee, back when he still identified as a Democrat.

That history captures the central irony running through the race. Van Drew was first elected to the House as a Democrat in 2018, then announced his switch to the Republican Party less than a year into his term, going on to become a close ally of President Trump. He won reelection in 2024 by a solid margin, carrying roughly 58 percent of the vote against Democrat Joe Salerno, underscoring the uphill nature of Mullock’s challenge in a district that has trended reliably Republican under Van Drew’s tenure despite its Democratic voting history before him.

Framing the Race Around Affordability and Health Care

At the Atlantic County event, Mullock argued that significant portions of the district remain economically struggling by New Jersey standards, and he used that framing to launch his central line of attack, that Van Drew has supported cuts to Medicaid, a program he described as directly serving the same working class residents he says his campaign is fighting for. That characterization of Van Drew’s record reflects Mullock’s own campaign messaging rather than an independently adjudicated assessment of the congressman’s voting history, and it echoes language Mullock used throughout his primary campaign, when he pledged to oppose what he called efforts to slash Medicare and Medicaid rather than protect them.

Mullock also addressed the attacks he expects to face as the race intensifies, predicting that Van Drew’s campaign will eventually label him and his supporters as extremists. That prediction arrived alongside an attack already in circulation, after Van Drew’s campaign called Mullock a liar in a statement responding to remarks Mullock made regarding municipal taxes in Cape May years earlier. Mullock has said that attack took his comments out of context, pointing out that municipal taxes were not, in fact, raised during the period in question. Van Drew’s campaign did not offer additional comment on the Reagan focused event specifically.

Local Democrats See an Opening, if a Narrow One

The energy at the office opening reflected genuine enthusiasm from local Democratic organizers, even as they acknowledged the challenge ahead. Atlantic County Democratic Chair Walead Abdrabouh noted that the crowded room reflected real excitement rather than simply a small venue, though the optics of an overflowing crowd at a campaign kickoff are hardly new in politics. Whether that enthusiasm translates into a genuine shot at unseating an incumbent who has now won three consecutive elections in the district remains the open question hanging over Mullock’s campaign, one that both sides will spend the coming months trying to answer as the general election campaign moves into full swing.