CAPE MAY COURT HOUSE — An estimated 100 people showed up to protest outside U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew’s annual legislative update Aug. 20 to the Cape May County Chamber of Commerce.
Protesters lined up along the side of Route 9 in front of South 9 Bar & Grille, holding various homemade signs, playing music and waving at cars passing.
Van Drew, R-2nd, addressed a packed room of members and provided updates on transportation and infrastructure. There was a heavy police presence in front of the restaurant.
Mays Landing resident Sharon Bybee said she has protested in five states this year and the response at this protest has been overwhelmingly positive.
“I’m out here demanding that Jeff Van Drew answer the Constitution,” Bybee said. “I’m overwhelmed by the positive response by the cars driving by honking.”
Several groups organized protests, including Indivisible: Empathy United, an activist grassroots community group based in Atlantic County, and Cape May County Indivisible. This grassroots group organizes frequent protests across southern New Jersey.
“I hope that the [legislative district] realizes that we need change,” Bybee said, adding that only one passerby seemed agitated.
Northfield resident Nancy Smith said she has attended many protests in Philadelphia as part of Refuse Fascism, an anti-fascist coalition that works to unite all who can be united through mass, nonviolent protest and resistance in the streets.
Smith has also protested with Veterans for Peace, an organization that calls on all service members to remember their duty to the Constitution, the nation, their communities and their conscience.
She added that it was important for her to attend the protest for several reasons, including Van Drew’s switch in party affiliation.
Van Drew was elected to the congressional district as a Democrat in the 2018 election. He declared his allegiance to the Republican Party after opposing the first impeachment of President Donald Trump. Van Drew was re-elected in 2020, this time as a Republican.
“Van Drew does everything that Trump wants and just recently, this past week, he said he supported Trump’s war in Iran and said, ‘God Bless the troops,’ and that’s why I [came to the protest],” Smith said.
– By RACHEL SHUBIN/For the Sentinel