Republicans Plan Rally Around Nancy Pelosi's Camden County Visit

GLOUCESTER TOWNSHIP, NJ — Camden County Republican Party Executive Director Tom Crone is planning what is being called a “warm welcome” for Nancy Pelosi. The House Speaker will be in Camden County to rally with Rep. Donald Norcross (D-1) as he launches his 2020 campaign later this month.

She will appear at Camden County College’s Blackwood Campus on Feb. 29, according to an email Norcross issued to supporters last week. Crone said Republicans will gather at the college on the same day to welcome a House Speaker he refers to as among the “most divisive speakers” there has ever been.

“She’s coming here because Donald Trump came here,” Crone said. “They’re going to rally Democrats who are political appointees who will be told to go there and smile. It’s not going to be an organic rally like it was in Wildwood (for Trump).”

On Monday, Norcross announced that Gov. Phil Murphy will also be in attendance at the rally.

"We both know that securing an affordable and high-quality education is key to strengthening our economy and our communities across the state," Norcross said in the announcement. "That it's essential we fight for higher wages to make sure there are good jobs and a fair shot at the American dream available to them when they graduate -- or even if they don't. Like me, Governor Murphy is a dedicated public servant who knows how to go to bat (and win) for working families in New Jersey. That's why I'm so incredibly humbled and honored to have the governor's support for my 2020 re-election campaign."

Crone said he expects a crowd similar to the one that greeted then House Speaker Harry Reid when he came to Cherry Hill for a fundraiser in 2014. That year, Reid was there to support Norcross, who was in the midst of his first bid for Congress.

That crowd had a heavy Tea Party influence, whereas this will be a crowd supporting an incumbent president who calls South Jersey “Trump Country.”

Norcross used that term as a rallying cry to bring out supporters to prove Trump wrong in his label, which he used after Rep. Jeff Van Drew switched parties from Democrat to Republican and invited Trump to come to Wildwood for a rally last week.

Van Drew represents the Second Congressional District, whereas Norcross represents the First Congressional District, which includes the longtime Democratic stronghold of Camden County.
Crone, a Gloucester Township resident, believes Republican support is growing in that stronghold.

“The average person is fed up with the impeachment investigation, and the economy is booming,” Crone said. “It’s a bad time for Nancy Pelosi.”

Recent polls have shown the country is split on the topic of impeachment and removing Trump from office. Pelosi's average unfavorability rating is at 50 percent, according to Real Clear Politics. The same group has Trump's unfavorability rating at 54 percent.