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Mike Crispi speaking as the face of the America First Republicans of New Jersey

The America First Republicans of New Jersey steadily builds its place in history as a political organization. Those who’ve been keeping up with New Jersey politics may have heard of this group. Styled as a “volunteer organization of grassroots patriots”, the movement has been increasingly active in the Garden State and has focused on one goal above all others – winning. Register an army of new voters and mobilize MAGA Republican candidates against Democrats. For those tired of stagnant New Jersey politics, that’s a breath of fresh air.

I had the fortune to witness Mike Crispi deliver a powerful speech during President Trump’s May 11 rally in Wildwood, NJ. He gave an impassioned defense of President Trump, election integrity, and an America First vision. Crispi pushed his Project 14 “Too Big to Rig” initiative, an attempt to bury Democrats with so many Trump ballots it would be impossible to cheat for a victory. In fact, President Trump later opined that he very much enjoyed the speech.

Sources familiar with the local Republican dynamics inform me that, behind the scenes, the Never Trumper elements of the South Jersey GOP were furious that Crispi was even allowed on stage to speak. Many see Mr. Crispi as a rising star with the potential to reshape the future of New Jersey politics. And that scares some entrenched party kingmakers.

Perhaps the fear is warranted. I had the pleasure of monitoring an election watch party last night in Toms River, New Jersey. The America First Republicans of New Jersey were present all evening. They worked together as a singular organism, a well-oiled machine. Non-stop would members pass on communications and news, from various sources, not satisfied to hang solely on the word of Fox. The group would confer until, with an entire room of voters waiting anxiously for news, Mike Crispi would grab a mic and update everyone on the latest developments. Most news that evening was met by cheers and applause. Nothing broke the mold, however, quite like Fox News calling New Jersey for Kamala Harris early on.

Not long after Fox News called New Jersey – as thousands of voters were still in 4-hour-long lines at polling stations across the Garden State – I interviewed Mr. Crispi about the future trajectory of the America First Republicans in New Jersey politics:

TIM: Thank you for your time, sir. Or do you prefer ‘Mr. Crispi’?

MIKE: *laughs*

TIM: *laughs* Mr. Crispi, what motivated you to start the movement, America First Republicans of New Jersey? Can you really flip New Jersey red?

MIKE: Well, I think that President Trump was facing attempts to remove him from the ballot in this state. We always believe that New Jersey is still in play for Republicans. South Jersey is very red, and North Jersey is purple, making it a region where a common-sense message like President Trump’s can win. We also know that President Trump is quite popular in urban areas, moreso than any other Republican candidate we’ve ever seen.

So, we looked at the math. We looked at what happened in 2021 in the gubernatorial race. And we said, ‘Somebody’s got to step up and make this happen for President Trump’. We know that he loves New Jersey, he’s got a lot of roots in this state, he’s done business in this state, yet we noticed all around the state apparatus – all the establishment people – they haven’t been doing anything to support him. They weren’t doing anything for him. Somebody had to step up and do it. That’s what our group did. So proud of our efforts.

TIM: Has your group seen a lot of enthusiasm in trying to sign up new Republican voters in New Jersey, especially from those who are not traditional voters?

MIKE: Yes, we’ve targeted what we call “low-propensity voters”, and now we – those are the people we’ve been targeting all along. Those are the people who either don’t vote often or don’t vote at all. We’ve reached out to them through digital ads and encouraged them to attend our rallies and events. Our aim is to teach them how to multiply themselves, whether by voting early, using mail-in ballots, or other methods to basically overwhelm the fraud. This is something I talked about at the Wildwood rally.

So we try to teach people to do that. We’ve held 31 rallies, every one of them was attended by over 100 to 300 people. And a lot of those people were not involved in the local/state-level politics. That means they really don’t vote that much – they’re low propensity. So we brought in so many new people into the party that are in the party for the long haul, because of President Trump, and it’s going to help us all across the state in all different types of races. We’re so happy about it.

TIM: We’ve noticed for the past few days, with early voting, the numbers for Republicans have outmatched those of Democrats in New Jersey. Do you believe the races here in New Jersey were called too soon?

MIKE: Yeah, absolutely. President Trump has helped us achieve the closest race for a Republican in New Jersey since 1988 when Ronald Reagan won it. So I think this shows he is very popular. However, Fox News, classic Fox News, reminds me of Arizona, they called it way too early. Trump is keeping it close; Trump is probably going to finish with only a 5-points, 6-points, 7-points, which for a Republican is phenomenal. Again, that is a 10-point swing from last time.

Now, the Senate candidate is going to lose by double digits. He was a Chris Christie dreg. He was a loser. He was a nobody. And people got mad at me for saying all around the state that that guy had to change his language because he was dragging down the ticket. They were all saying the opposite. They were all saying that Trump was dragging down the ticket and that Bashaw had a chance to flip it and carry Trump. That’s ludicrous. It shows how out of touch the establishment wonks and Christie loyalists are. They are done. We are in control now. And we proved it.

TIM: Final question, sir. You had mentioned the Wildwood rally. I was there myself, phenomenal rally. When you look at Trump’s influence here in New Jersey, that rally alone, the amount of people there. You were there, I heard you speak. What is the future of the America First Republicans going forward after this election?

MIKE: Well the Wildwood rally was amazing. It was genius of President Trump to come here to New Jersey. That kind of sparked it all. It was our Project 14 “Too Big to Rig” initiative for the America First Republicans of New Jersey. We’re going to get right back into this thing. We’re going to look at races in the future. I’m going to look at future opportunities. I have something in mind that a lot of people are talking to me about. We’ll see what we do.

Many people are encouraging me to consider running for Congress again, and we’ll see how that unfolds. And there’s also a gubernatorial race coming up next year, and we’re going to see if there emerges a candidate for us to support. We are a force within the state. Our movement and our group are a strong voting block, and we are going to have a say in New Jersey politics for a very long time. It was all thanks to this.

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TIM: Mr. Crispi, you’ve done great work. I thank you for your time.

MIKE: Thank you, Tim.

Crispi may be blunt about the Chris Christie loyalists remaining in New Jersey’s Republican circles, but he’s not actually wrong. Even as an Independent, and lifelong resident of New Jersey, it’s not hard to spot Never Trumper career politicians like Jon Bramnick perpetually hovering around the New Jersey political scene. Multiple sources (across South Jersey especially) have corroborated that the “establishment” or “RINO” camp within the GOP is hostile both to President Trump and to populist upstarts like Crispi. America First Republicans are more than rising stars in state politics. They’re considered an existential threat to the gatekeepers of the New Jersey GOP power structure who keep Republicans as a perpetual opposition party. Disgruntled GOP entities seem to have also engaged in a smear campaign against Crispi and his movement, working with left-wing tabloids to write hitpieces on them.

With the news that President Donald Trump has been reelected and was more competitive in historically Democratic strongholds than many expected, it’s unclear what the future truly holds for the America First Republicans of New Jersey. Having personally witnessed the energy in the room all night, it would not surprise me if this younger, motivated, populist brand of Republicans has the vigor needed to dislodge the old guard of New Jersey politics. Time will tell.