It’s been nearly 11 years since President Donald Trump descended the golden escalator to deliver a real, unapologetic, and indisputably authentic message to the American people.
In that time, Trump led the Republican ticket three times and each time he won the GOP more votes than in the previous election, both nationally and in blue states such as New Jersey.
But brow-beaten Republicans, crass political insiders, and corrupt consultants refuse to admit that Trump is right in his messaging and in his policies. The result: congressional candidates are performing far worse than the president and hindering his second-term successes.
THE ANALILIA MEJIA CAUTIONARY TALE: REPUBLICANS DESPERATELY NEED AN ANSWER TO SOCIALISM
The recent special election in New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District is just the latest example. An avowed socialist, aspiring “Squad” member, and cultural marxist, Rep. Analilia Mejia (D-NJ) soundly defeated the Republican nominee even though he had all the right credentials for the upscale district.
Joe Hathaway is Yale-educated, a prominent mayor, and has a picture-perfect family. But he lost by a whopping 20 points to a radical, antisemitic zealot who would burn the Declaration of Independence if it meant a few more straw donations on her Act Blue page.
Why such a lopsided loss?
Hathway was portrayed by his own team as a dithering domestic better suited to changing his baby’s diapers than strengthening the resolve of the Republican caucus in Congress.
Unsurprisingly, MAGA Republicans weren’t excited. While the Trump administration has delivered massive wins on taxes, prescription drug prices, border security, and the MAHA policies that forged a winning coalition in 2024, base voters are still waiting for mass deportations, COVID-19 accountability, and prosecutions over the stolen 2020 election.
Hathaway was hampered by consultants whose sole priority seemed to be saving the neighboring seventh district for Rep. Tom Kean (R-NJ) rather than running an aggressive race that would put Democrats on the defensive.
The last thing Kean’s consultants wanted was a candidate in the same media market courageously supporting the president when Kean didn’t want to. So they kept Hathaway on a short leash. They branded him as the “Chief Diaper Changer” in his own household and literally pushed out mail and TV ads depicting the candidate as a weak domestic unphased by the demographic suicide his opponent desires.
When the polls closed on election night, and Hathway was declared the loser, weak-on-Trump RINOs quickly blamed the president and compared Hathaway’s loss to Jack Ciattarelli’s gubernatorial campaign last year — but for the wrong reasons.
The president wasn’t to blame for the outsized victories of Gov. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ) in 2025 or Mejia last week. Rather, it was the refusal of the Republican candidates to laud the administration, promote “America First” policies, and court Trump voters while their opponents embraced the No Kings movement, leaned into the affordability scam, and rallied the anti-Trump crowd day in and day out.
How can we be sure this analysis is true?
In 2024, Trump shared the New Jersey ballot with Senate candidate Curtis Bashaw. Bashaw ran away from Trump much as Ciattarelli and Hathaway did. No matter the venue, his first instinct was always to describe how he wasn’t similar to Trump, what he would do differently than Trump, and the ways in which Trump was supposedly bad for New Jersey. But while Trump lost the state by 5 points without spending a penny competing for it, Bashaw lost by 10.
The truth is, Trump supporters are the first critical cohort of voters any Republican needs to win.
In fact, CNN recently reported polling that shows 100% of self-described MAGA Republicans support the president and that the share of Republicans who regard themselves as MAGA is actually increasing, not shrinking.
ANALILIA MEJIA SWORN IN TO REPLACE MIKIE SHERRILL
Blame for the embarrassing loss last week in NJ-11 lies with the party bosses who prefer the status quo, political insiders obsessed with protecting the weak Republican congressmen New Jersey sends to Washington, and the consultants who fear the ramifications of authentic America First policies that Trump has used to build an unstoppable juggernaut.
Hopefully Hathaway will learn these lessons for his rematch this November.
Mike Crispi and Michael Byrne are Co-Chairmen of ‘America First Republicans of New Jersey,’ the largest grassroots political organization in the Garden State.