NJ Conservative Group To GOP Leaders: 'We're Tired Of Losing'

NUTLEY, NJ — A conservative Republican group has a message for GOP party leaders in New Jersey: they’re “tired of losing.”

Last week, former Nutley town commissioner Steven Rogers posted a video alongside Tricia Flanagan, who ran for the Republican Party nomination for U.S. Senate in July’s primary election.

In the video, Flanagan and Rogers, a Nutley resident, urged viewers to support President Donald Trump’s controversial claims of election fraud, which many critics have lambasted – including those from his own party. Watch it here.

Rogers, a former member of the Donald J. Trump 2020 Campaign Advisory Board, said that in the wake of the election, he’s been getting outreach from thousands of Garden State conservatives who are “tired of losing” and continue to support Trump, despite news reports projecting Joe Biden as the next president of the United States.

Enter Campaign 4 America – an alternative to the New Jersey GOP.

Rogers helms the group, which counts Flanagan as one of its vice presidents and bills itself as a movement that “supports the Judeo-Christian values America was founded upon.” The group also says it “advances conservative values” and “vigorously opposes the socialist/communist movement.”

Some policies the group supports includes George Bush’s “Thousand Points of Light” agenda, and Trump’s “America First” deal.

Think this mindset is too far to the right to succeed in a famously Blue state? Think again, Rogers says: the Campaign 4 America has delegates for its NJ Conservative Coalition in 16 counties and a 10,000-strong mailing list.

According to Rogers, New Jersey’s Republican leaders need to stand behind President Trump and “not jump ship.” They also need to ramp up their outreach to grassroot conservatives – or suffer the consequences, he said.

Rogers said that despite his criticism of GOP leadership in New Jersey, Campaign 4 America isn’t seeking to compete with them – only “fill the gap they created.”

“We’re not into turf battles,” he said. “You’re either going to be with us or against us. We’re going to do our thing.”

NEW JERSEY GOP: ‘WE’VE COME A LONG WAY’

Patch reached out to the New Jersey GOP via email seeking comment for this story. We’ll include this article with any reply we receive.

According to NJGOP leaders, the group is thriving and played a key role in the 2020 election.

On Nov. 3 – as polling places in New Jersey closed on Election Day – Chairman Doug Steinhardt sent an email that thanked Republican candidates and their supporters in the Garden State.

“We’ve come a long way, with a long way yet to go,” Steinhardt wrote. “Still, the product of three years of focused effort and execution has allowed us to strengthen our Republican family and actually grow it. Since January 2018, we’ve registered over 200,000 new Republicans, erasing decades of registered losses by nearly double.”

Although the party was challenged by the COVID-19 crisis, it has a lot to be proud of, Steinhardt added. Some accomplishments this year include:

• “Hosted a Rally in Wildwood with over 15,000 attendees”

• “Recruited and trained over 3,000 volunteers statewide”

• “Gathered over 10,000 petition signatures to get President Trump and his delegates on the ballot”

• “Contacted over 2,000,000 voters via door to door, text message and phone banking”

• “Attended over 150 events in all 21 counties”

• “Earned over 200 media mentions in national, state and local media outlets”

• “Reached over 8,000,000 voters on social media”

• “Invested in an aggressive, targeted, digital advertising program that showed our message over 2 million times”

• “Sent 1,300,000 GOTV texts to voters around the state”

• “Sent 3,800,000 pieces of mail to voters”

• “Total funds raised is up over 26 percent”

• “Half of donors are new, which is a sign of a growing and healthy fundraising program”

• “Nearly doubled our small dollar fundraising”

• “Grew our email list by nearly 50 percent”

• “Hosted the largest Statewide Leadership Summit ever”

• “Added over 200,000 new Republicans to the rolls in our state”

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This article originally appeared on the Belleville-Nutley Patch