Kenilworth, NJ – Conservative activist Scott Presler, widely credited with helping flip Pennsylvania red in the 2024 presidential election, has set his sights on New Jersey, aiming to repeat his voter registration success ahead of the state’s November 2025 gubernatorial election.
Presler’s grassroots efforts, which mobilized thousands of new Republican voters in Pennsylvania, are now being deployed in the Garden State as he seeks to bolster the GOP’s chances of defeating the Democratic stronghold in a race that could reshape New Jersey’s political landscape.
In Pennsylvania, Presler’s relentless campaign through his Political Action Committee, Early Vote Action, targeted key demographics—hunters, truckers, veterans, and even the Amish—to shrink the Democratic voter registration advantage by over 300,000 since 2020.
His strategy paid off: counties like Bucks and Luzerne flipped red, contributing to President Donald Trump’s victory in the state. Presler’s knack for turning out low-propensity voters and flipping battleground areas has earned him praise from Trump allies, including a $1 million donation from Elon Musk to Early Vote Action last year.
Now, with the 2024 election in the rearview mirror, Presler isn’t slowing down. Less than two months into 2025, he has already hit the ground running in New Jersey, a state where Democrats have long dominated but showed signs of vulnerability in recent elections. Governor Phil Murphy’s narrow 3.2-point reelection win in 2021 and Kamala Harris’s reduced 5.9-point margin over Trump in 2024 suggest a shifting tide—one Presler intends to capitalize on.
“We’re not waiting until next year,” Presler told supporters at a recent voter registration training in Union County. “New Jersey is next, and we’re going to flip the governorship red on November 4th.”
Presler’s approach in New Jersey mirrors his Pennsylvania playbook. He’s targeting Second Amendment enthusiasts at gun shows and ranges, courting veterans at American Legion halls, and engaging younger voters at fraternity and sorority houses. His team has already trained hundreds of volunteers across nearly half of New Jersey’s 21 counties, registering new Republican voters at a breakneck pace.
A standout event in Kenilworth drew a massive crowd of GOP faithful, a turnout more typical of election season than a chilly February weekend, signaling unprecedented enthusiasm among the state’s Republicans.
The stakes are high. Incumbent Democratic Governor Phil Murphy is term-limited, leaving an open seat that Republicans see as winnable.
Leading GOP contender Jack Ciattarelli, who came within 84,286 votes of unseating Murphy in 2021, has expressed optimism about Presler’s involvement.
“Scott’s going to be in an excellent position to register a great many voters Republican,” Ciattarelli said, noting the state’s shrinking Democratic registration edge—down from over one million to just above 900,000 since 2021.
Presler’s efforts are not without controversy.
Critics, including some Democrats, have accused him of amplifying divisive rhetoric, while a recent CNN piece painted him as a polarizing figure. Yet, his supporters argue that his results speak for themselves. In Pennsylvania, his focus on early voting and mail-in ballots—tactics once shunned by some conservatives—helped overcome historical GOP deficits. He’s now applying those lessons in New Jersey, with staff already stationed at places like the Wildwood Boardwalk to tap into both local and Pennsylvania border voters.
The numbers tell a compelling story.
Since 2021, New Jersey has added 145,611 registered Republicans while losing 41,244 Democrats, narrowing the gap significantly. If Presler’s momentum continues, the GOP could close it further by November, setting the stage for a historic upset.
“We’re going to play it smarter, not harder,” Presler said, echoing his Pennsylvania strategy. “The energy is undeniable.”
As the June 10, 2025, Republican primary approaches, Presler remains neutral on candidates, pledging to back the eventual nominee. But his mission is clear: turn New Jersey red by mobilizing an army of new voters. With Early Vote Action’s $2.2 million war chest and a growing volunteer network, the activist who helped deliver Pennsylvania to Trump is betting he can do the same for New Jersey’s governor’s mansion.
Whether he succeeds could hinge on whether the state’s purple undercurrents—evident in flipped counties like Passaic and Cumberland in 2024—turn into a full-blown red wave by November.
