Pennsylvania
Republican wunderkind who helped Trump win Pennsylvania sets sights on flipping another long-blue state
The Republican wunderkind credited with helping President-elect Trump claim pivotal Pennsylvania in his decisive Election Day win is now setting his sights on New Jersey.
Scott Presler, an indomitable voter-registration activist and founder of the Political Action Committee Early Vote Action, said the long-blue Garden State is ripe to turn red.
“New Jersey is trending to the right. There’s momentum,” Presler, 36, told The Post. “We have already rehired 23 staff. So whereas Republican parties in the past will pack up, go home, not renew contracts, Early Vote Action already right now, in December of 2024, has staff on the ground.”
Vice President Harris won New Jersey by only 6 points, compared to Biden’s 16-point victory in the state in 2020.
Trump’s performance was the best for a Republican in the state since George W. Bush’s re-election contest 20 years ago. Trump seized Gloucester County and Morris County — both of which he narrowly lost to Biden in 2020. Trump also won Passaic County, which Biden carried by more than 16 points in 2020 and Republicans haven’t won since 1992. Trump’s victories in Cumberland and Atlantic counties were the first for a GOP candidate since 1988.
Presler, who has more than 2 million followers on X, has already promised to bring a show of force to Edison, NJ next week after its city council banned American flags from their meetings.The ban was reversed earlier this week.
“We will have a presence at the December 11th meeting, peacefully with beautiful American flags, and we’re going to make sure that every single person that attends also registers to vote,” Presler said.
He said he will “thousands” of volunteers fanning the state in coming months.
“You’re going to see us at New Jersey truck stops. . . . You’re going to see us at gun shows and gun stores courting Second Amendment voters. You’re going to see us knocking on doors at fraternity houses and sorority houses. You’re going to see us going to American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars halls courting veteran votes. And you’re also going to see us at Wildwood Boardwalk,” he said.
Early Vote Action has more than $2.2 million in the bank and no debts, according to Federal Election Commission records. In August, they received a $1 million from Trump confidante and Department of Government Efficiency co-head Elon Musk.
“I would love for Elon Musk to continue to see the work that Early Vote Action has done,” Presler said. “We delivered the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, we delivered a Senate seat. We helped flip house seats from blue to red. And I would argue confidently and also very humbly that our work helped give President Trump the narrow majority in Congress.”
The first big GOP test in the Garden State will be the governor’s race next year.
In 2021, businessman Jack Ciattarelli came within four points of beating Democrat Phil Murphy. Ciattarelli, 62, is taking a second stab at Murphy and is considered the frontrunner to win the GOP primary in June.
“Our greatest challenge was the pandemic. It’s not easy to campaign when there’s a shelter in place order. We don’t have to contend with that this time around,” Ciattarelli told The Post.
“I really believe New Jersey has always been a purple state. It’s been tough on our Republican presidential nominees but Donald Trump changed that this past election day with his performance,” said Ciattarelli.
Presler is not officially backing Ciattarelli and said he will support whoever wins the GOP primary.
Ciattarelli is hopeful Presler’s lightening will strike twice.
“Scott’s going to be in an excellent position to take a great many voters and register them Republican,” Ciattarelli said.
Pennsylvania
Pa. House committee advances bill to require radon testing and mitigation in schools
Pennsylvania
Suspect arrested for shooting near basketball court in Elkins Park, Pa.
ABINGTON TWP., Pa. (WPVI) — Police have arrested a suspect who they say fired shots at a vehicle near a crowded basketball court in Montgomery County.
Jamell Whitmore, 18, of King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, was arrested on Thursday.
The shooting happened on March 22 near a basketball court on the 300 block of Cadwalader Avenue in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania.
Shooting near Elkins Park basketball courts sends stray bullet into home
Police said multiple callers reported hearing gunfire around 8:15 p.m. and witnessed a large group of people run from the area behind the McKinley Firehouse.
As a vehicle drove by, one of the men in the group, identified by police as Whitmore, ran off to the parking lot to retrieve a gun and began firing multiple shots towards the vehicle.
Police say it’s unclear if the vehicle was hit, but one of the bullets struck a nearby home.
No one in the home was injured.
Police said no innocent bystanders or those involved in the shooting were injured.
The motive for the shooting remains unknown.
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Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania-born indie rockers Tigers Jaw return with new album release
The chorus for the song “Primary Colors” was something Walsh wrote years ago, with the song’s outro originally being used as a verse.
“And something just wasn’t quite clicking, and everything that I tried felt kind of forced,” Walsh said. “We were all just like, ‘Yeah, there’s something here, but it’s not quite doing what I think it has the potential to do.’”
The band then started toying with the dynamics between the verses and the chorus.
“It just unlocked something for me in the idea where I was like, ‘Wow, this kind of quiet, loud, quiet, loud format really works well with this song,’” Walsh said. “So yeah, it just transformed it instantly into an idea that felt a lot stronger.”
The album was recorded with Grammy-winning producer Will Yip, a relationship still budding from their 2014 album, “Charmer.” Collins said the new album’s sound is “as true as we could be to playing the record live.”
“I wasn’t as tied to the tones that have classically been Tigers Jaw because I think at this point, I’ve just come to this realization that no matter what, if we’re making it, it is Tigers Jaw,” Collins said.
The new album has a “palpable energy” that shares the same spirit as their earlier records, Walsh said. And while “tastes evolve,” the band followed “what feels good.”
“This is the best representation of the band at the time, and it’s almost like a snapshot of us as artists, as people, as a creative entity over this time in our career,” he said.
“Lost On You” is out now through Hopeless Records and is available on vinyl, CD and various streaming platforms.
On April 16, Tigers Jaw will perform at Union Transfer at 8 p.m. They will be supported by Hot Flash Heat Wave and Creeks, the solo project of Balance and Composure vocalist and guitarist Jon Simmons, who is from Doylestown, Pennsylvania.
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