Kennedys will be out of Congress unless first-time N.J. hopeful wins

VINELAND, N.J. — Amy Kennedy spotted a familiar face.

Shane Harris was near a line of volunteers waving campaign signs at passing cars. Harris met Kennedy a few months ago, and had showed up again at a campaign stop here Saturday, this time with his adult daughter. He told Kennedy, who’s running for Congress in South Jersey’s 2nd District, that she had both their votes.

Harris, a Vineland police officer, voted to send Jeff Van Drew to Washington two years ago. He even phonebanked for him as a volunteer. So when Van Drew, a longtime Democrat, switched parties last year and pledged his “undying support” to President Donald Trump, Harris felt burned.

“No, I can’t vote for him again. I’m a Democrat,” Harris said. “It was an easy choice.”

Kennedy has picked up many supporters like Harris since starting her campaign to unseat Van Drew, whose defection and opposition to impeaching Trump stoked fury among New Jersey Democrats. She said it was her own anger at Van Drew that sparked her decision to run. A 41-year-old former public school teacher, she won the July primary without the backing of South Jersey’s political establishment, with a message focused on her background as an educator and mental health advocate.

Another important element of her campaign: She’s a Kennedy.

If elected in November, Kennedy, whose husband is former U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy, will become the next member of a political dynasty whose power and influence span almost a century. If she loses, following U.S. Rep. Joe Kennedy’s unsuccessful Senate bid in Massachusetts, there will be no Kennedy in elected federal office next year.

In an interview last week, Kennedy acknowledged her married name has helped raise money and form a robust campaign team. But she doesn’t feel the weight of the family’s history while she campaigns hundreds of miles from New England.

“Here, it’s not as big a deal,” she said. “And I’m trying to keep this focused on South Jersey, because it needs to be less about me and more about where we live and what the people here care about. And that’s health care, and jobs, and people who are worried about raising their kids.”

When talking to voters, she’s more likely to mention the family she was born into: four generations of Atlantic County residents who were part of local government, coached youth sports, and owned small businesses. Her father, Jerry Savell, was a county freeholder and a councilman in two townships. Michael Suleiman, chairman of the Atlantic County Democrats, said Kennedy’s roots matter more to voters than her husband’s.

“A lot of young folks don’t have the connection to the Kennedy name the way my parents do,” Suleiman said. “It might get you money and resources, but around here, it’s her family that is known for public service.”

Encompassing Atlantic, Cape May, Cumberland and Salem counties, along with parts of four other counties, New Jersey’s vast 2nd District is a political battleground. More than 30 percent of registered voters aren’t affiliated with either party. Despite being held by a Republican for more than 20 years before the Van Drew captured it for Democrats, the district voted twice for Barack Obama before backing Trump by 1 percentage point.

Van Drew, 67, a longtime Democrat in the State Senate with a conservative stance on guns, was seen as the ideal candidate to flip the seat. He won with 53 percent of the vote and helped Democrats gain their majority. Less than a year after getting to Washington, he was a Republican.

She was a middle school teacher in 2010 when she met Patrick Kennedy, who was visiting Atlantic City to speak at a charity event. They now live in Brigantine. She is education director of the Kennedy Forum, founded by her husband, where she advocates for education and mental health policy.

Doug Rubin, a Bostonbased political strategist who advised Joe Kennedy in his 2012 House campaign, said the Kennedy name still means something to voters, no matter where they are.

“But there’s also an advantage that carries nationally, in terms of being able to raise money and make a name for yourself, and that is undeniable,” he said. “It just helps you shine a bigger spotlight.”

That financial advantage was on display in the primary, when she raised $1.4 million compared to $415,600 for Brigid Callahan Harrison, the preferred candidate of the famed South Jersey Democratic machine. In the general election, Kennedy is outspending Van Drew on the airwaves more than ninefold so far. From the day after the July primary through last week, Kennedy had spent about $844,000 on TV ads, compared with just $90,000 for Van Drew, according to the ad tracking firm Advertising Analytics.