A massive crowd of nearly 100,000 showed up to rally for former President Donald Trump in the deep-blue state of New Jersey — a turnout that took even Trump supporters by surprise, Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-N.J., told Newsmax on Monday.
In an interview on "Wake Up America," Van Drew declared the Saturday rally was "the largest political rally in the history of the state" — and that "in all honesty, we didn't know it was going to be this big."
A spokesperson for the City of Wildwood told the Associated Press she estimated there were between 80,000 and 100,000 people at the event.
"When I walked up there and I spoke … the thing that you saw there were Americans across the entire spectrum," Van Drew said.
"They're believers," he said. "They believe in this extraordinary experience, this amazing place that we call the United States, and they wanted it to continue."
"These people know in their heart [that] if we … lose this, we could lose America," he said, adding: "This is not about keeping or saving the Republican Party. This about saving the republic itself."
The lawmaker called the gathering "peaceful," and both "fun" and "serious."
"It was everything that you would want in a rally," he said. "It was great, and that's why the mainstream media just don't want to talk about it much, because they've never seen anything like it before."
Van Drew predicted people in New Jersey will vote for Trump based on his previous administration's delivery on economic issues.
"I'm the campaign chair for New Jersey, I want to do everything possible," he told Newsmax. "We are going to win this state, and we're going to work hard, and we're going to fight hard … we got to give it everything we got."
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