Scott Presler works to flip New Jersey Red in tight governor’s race

New Jersey is in the midst of a “Lord of the Rings” moment as Republicans work to rally voters to flip deep red blue in a tight gubernatorial election that is coming down to its final days, Republican activist Scott Presler told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview.

“To anyone who thinks New Jersey is not a winner in November, I want to remind you that in 2021, this election was decided by 84,000 votes,” Presler told Fox News Digital in a Zoom interview Monday afternoon. “Six hundred thousand Republicans did not vote in this election. This election was winnable. Did you know there are 250,000 gun owners in New Jersey who are not registered to vote? If just one supporter of the Second Amendment registered and voted, we would move New Jersey from blue to red.”

Presler is on a “Flip It Red” mission in the Garden State, registering voters and promoting GOP candidate Jack Ciareterelli’s campaign against Democratic candidate Rep. Mikie Sherrill in an off-year election that could add to the Democratic Party’s legacy after 2024 box office losses or preserve the party’s legacy in the long-standing blue state.

Presler is the founder of Early Vote Action, a PAC he operates that focuses on voter registration and has rallied support for President Donald Trump’s campaign and the GOP in the key battleground state of Pennsylvania in the 2024 election. The Republican activist spent months crisscrossing the Keystone State to rally support for the Trump-Vance ticket before the battleground ultimately throws its support behind the GOP on Election Day.

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Scott Presler registers new voters and hands out signs amid tailgaters in State College, Pennsylvania, in 2024. (Fox News Digital/Charlie Creitz)

Presler has since moved across the Delaware River to New Jersey, where he is targeting the long-time blue state with conservative activism.

“We just had a landslide victory for Donald Trump, winning all seven swing states and winning the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania with our work on early voting action. In December 2024, I announced that we were going to focus next on flipping New Jersey’s governor from Blue to Red. So we had the staff full time, across all 21 counties in New Jersey. The voters.

New Jersey is in the midst of a “Lord of the Rings” or “Star Wars” moment, Presler said, saying voters have the opportunity to “save their state” and pointed to data showing how Republican support has increased in the state.

“This is their opportunity to save the state. This election in 2025 will be considered a referendum. The last opportunity, this is your ‘Lord of the Rings,’ this is your ‘Star Wars’ moment where people have the chance to save their state,” he said.

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New Jersey voted to elect former Vice President Kamala Harris as president nearly a year ago. Trump, however, made big inroads with Garden State voters, flipping five counties to red and improving his 16-point loss in the state in the 2020 election to a six-point loss in 2024.

“Every month, besides June, when this party shift was happening, Republicans gained elections over old when Democrats are spending more money than us and in a blue state. That shows me that I think the tide is changing, and I think we have the wind at our backs,” he said.

Republican activist Scott Presler rallied voter registration in the battleground state of Pennsylvania for the GOP in the 2024 elections and is now focused on flipping New Jersey Red in the 2025 elections of the year. (Jeff Kowalsky/Getty Images)

Presler rattled that New Jersey voters have become increasingly exasperated with the state’s notoriously high property taxes, its spiraling energy rates and even its continued ban on plastic bags at checkout lines that have prompted some residents to abandon Democrats in favor of the GOP ticket.

“Republicans, we have to be that house of common sense, that party of common sense, that we’re going to bring down property taxes, which are hurting New Jersey families — and that’s the number one issue I hear about,” he said. “That we want to lower electricity prices, the number two that voters hear about. And the voters also want the third common sense issue, which is law and order. They want us to deport and arrest criminal illegal aliens who are committing crimes against the voters of New Jersey. And from the motive this year last year in 2025, I think you’re going to see a huge amount of independent voters and Democrat vote for Jack for which are common fonts

The activist pointed to a former Democratic voter and teacher he spoke with at a fair in Sussex County, New Jersey — a rural section of the state that borders New York and Pennsylvania — who noticed that Democrats had become so “extreme” in their views that he left the party and is considering running a red vote.

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“They’ve become so extreme, so radical in their beliefs, even when it comes to things like allowing children to change their gender at such a young age. He says he doesn’t want to do anything with that party anymore,” Presler said of what the voter relayed to him. “And after a conversation I had with him, he’s even willing to give Jack Ciattarelli a closer look. And that just shows me that the Democrats are fleeing their old party. And they’re looking for a new home.”

Republican activist Scott Presler is the founder of Early Vote Action, a PAC that focuses on voter registration and is currently working to flip New Jersey Red. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Gen Z, the youngest American generation that is able to vote, played a central role in delivering Trump a victory in 2024, with Presler saying that male Gen Zers, in particular, are moving more to the right in New Jersey’s gubernatorial elections.

The GOP activist pointed to another resident he spoke with during the MONMOUTH COUNTY, New Jersey, just over the summer, an 18-year-old who was not yet registered to vote.

“When I talk to a voter, I really want to get into the voter’s mind and head. And I was just asking them a few questions.” Hey, would you like to own a house someday? “And he was like, ‘Yeah, I want to but gosh the property’ – he said this, not me – ‘Property taxes are so high here,'” Presler recounted.

“As I’m just talking to him, I’m really discerning most of his beliefs. I think all of them are really consistent with the Republican Party. And so I’m courting him, and I’m asking for his vote for Jack Ciattarelli, and I’m asking him to register to vote.

Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.) and Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) have both launched gubernatorial bids for their respective states in the 2025 elections. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

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Sherrill is facing a campaign scandal after a report in September revealed that the United States Naval Academy blocked Sherrill from attending her graduation amid the cheating scandal. The Democratic House lawmaker criticized the report’s release and said she was banned from walking to her graduation because she refused to report classmates involved in the scandal.

“Mikie “Cheating Scandal” Sherrill,” Sherrill called. “She voted against (The Laken Riley Act). She has no plans to lower property taxes. She has no plans to lower prices for the power crisis. And she doesn’t know where she made her money, $7 million in stock trades. In fact, I would say those are the reasons the Democrat will be depressed.” Their candidate is not inspiring against Jack Ciattarelli. “

Fox News Digital contacted Sherrill’s campaign Tuesday morning regarding Presler’s remarks, but did not immediately receive a response.

On the other hand, Presler said, Ciattarelli implemented by Trump offers voter policies that would lower taxes and electricity prices, ending New Jersey’s plastic bags, opposing offshore wind to protect marine life, among other policies.

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“They want to make life affordable for New Jersey voters so they don’t have to move to Pennsylvania,” he said. “They couldn’t move Florida. They want to stay in New Jersey. And so really Jack Ciattarelli is proposing policies that residents respond to.”