Donald Trump’s supporters showed up in the heart of enemy territory on Friday, with a small but boisterous rally in the famously liberal Essex County suburb of Montclair.
Two dozen supporters of the former president and Republican presidential candidate held signs and waved banners reading “Montclair for Trump,” “Don’t Tread of Me,” and “Honk for Trump,” and many motorists did just that.
“There’s a lot of, let’s say, underground support for President Trump in the town,” said Michael D. Byrne, the Montclair Republican party chairman and co-chair of the group America First Republicans for New Jersey. “And we wanted to have sort of a public display so that people who are here and are a little reserved about showing their support for President Trump know that it’s a safe space.”
The rally was just 11 days before the Nov. 5 presidential contest, when the former real estate developer, reality TV star and first president convicted of a felony — 34, in fact, though he’s appealing — will face the Democratic nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, in his attempt to regain the White House after losing a reelection bid to Joe Biden in 2020.
The rally took place on a highly visible traffic bump-out at Bloomfield Avenue and Church Street in the township’s busy downtown, normally bustling with shoppers and diners and all the more crowded on Friday’s unseasonably mild afternoon and evening.
Montclair, a largely wealthy but economically and racially mixed community, defies the stereotypical link between suburbs and conservative politics. Byrne acknowledged as much, noting that there were only about 2,500 registered Republicans in the township out of some 35,000 registered voters.
In 2020, Biden took 88.3% of the vote in Montclair.
In July 2017, then-Republican Gov. Chris Christie mocked the township’s liberal reputation following a hostile call on a radio show, telling the host, “I love getting calls from Montclair communists.”
Rally attendees included Joseph Belnome of Belleville, the Republican challenger to Democratic U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill in the contest to represent New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District, which includes Montclair.
“I’m actually not surprised at the amount of support we’ve been getting our here,” Belnome said.
But Montclair resident and Trump supporter Robert Pettigrew said he was taken aback by the show of support for Trump — though not that he minded.
“I’m kind of surprised by it,” said Pettigrew, 51, a lawyer, who had taken his 5-year-old daughter, Charlotte, to attend her first political rally after another Trump supporter had emailed him about it.
“I didn’t think he had this kind of support here out in the open.”
Stories by Steve Strunsky
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Steve Strunsky may be reached at sstrunsky@njadvancemedia.com.