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 crossed the Delaware River into New Jersey, where he's targeting the longtime blue state with conservative activism.
"We just won a landslide victory for Donald Trump, winning all seven swing states and winning the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania with our work at Early Vote Action. In December of 2024, I announced that we were going to focus next on helping to flip the New Jersey governorship from blue to red. So we have currently, 14 full-time staff on the ground across New Jersey's 21 counties. We have been working tirelessly all throughout 2025, helping to register voters. And our message is: leave no county untouched," he said, explaining he and staff are not only focused on deep blue counties ahead of the election, but also on reinvigorating voters in rural and right-leaning counties.
New Jersey is in the midst of a "Lord of the Rings" or "Star Wars" moment, Presler said, saying voters have the chance 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 is gonna be seen as a referendum. The final opportunity, this is your ‘Lord of the Rings,' This is your ‘Star Wars’ moment when people have the chance to save their state," he said.
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 red, and improved on his 16-point loss in the state during the 2020 election to a six-point loss in 2024.
"Every month besides June, when that party switching was happening, Republicans have gained in an off-year election when the 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 that we have wind at our backs," he said.
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 pivotal role in delivering Trump a victory in 2024, with Presler saying male Gen Zers, specifically, are moving more to the right in New Jersey's gubernatorial election.
The GOP activist pointed to another resident he chatted with during the Monmouth County Fair over the summer, an 18-year-old who was not yet registered to vote.
"When I am talking to a voter, I really want to get into the mind and the head of the voter. And I was just asking him some questions. ‘Hey, would you like to own a home one day?' And he was saying, ‘yeah I want to but gosh the property’ – he said this, not me – 'the 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, really are congruent with the Republican Party. And so I'm courting him and I'm asking for his vote for JJack Ciattarelli, and I am asking him to register to vote. And it's young men like that man that I think you're going to see who carried Donald Trump to victory in 2024, a lot of those some voters are gonna come out this year," he added.
Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.) and Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) both launched gubernatorial bids for their respective states in the 2025 election. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Sherrill is in the midst of facing a campaign scandal after a report in September revealed that the United States Naval Academy blocked Sherrill from taking part in her graduation amid the cheating scandal. The Democrat House lawmaker slammed the release of the report and said she was banned from walking at her graduation because she declined to report classmates who were involved in the scandal.
"Mikie ‘Cheating Scandal’ Sherrill," Presler called Sherrill. "She voted against (the Laken Riley Act). She has no plan to bring down property taxes. She has no plan to bring down electricity crisis prices. And she doesn't know where she made her money, $7 million worth in stock trades. … In fact, I would argue that those are the reasons why Democrat turnout is gonna be depressed. Their candidate is uninspiring versus Jack Ciattarelli."
Fox News Digital reached out to Sherrill's campaign Tuesday morning regarding Presler's remarks but did not immediately receive a response.
On the flip side, Presler said, Trump-endorsed Ciattarelli is offering voters policies that would bring taxes and electricity prices down, ending New Jersey's ban on 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. … They don't to move Florida. They want to stay in new Jersey. And so really Jack Ciattarelli is offering policies that the residents are responding to," he said.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/deep-blue-new-jersey-amid-lord-rings-moment-save-state-from-democrats-scott-presler