FROM THE MAG: Remembering the Delaware in Our Darkest Hour

This is a special preview of an exclusive article from the Winter 2026 inaugural edition of Independence Magazine—our brand-new publication available to read for free online right now. 

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Editor's note: The state where much of the War for Independence was fought is now ground zero for the America First movement's project to take back our country. New Jersey's Catholic working class has long made it a Democrat stronghold. But now those same voters, sold a bill of goods with globalism, are rapidly converting to MAGA—and never going back. Despite Jack Ciattarelli's loss in the November 2025 governor's race, our coalition made deep inroads into the communities that Democrats abandoned. That he failed is a testament to the GOP's strategic failure to turn out winning quantities of Trump voters—but the voters are there. In this feature article, Kevin Mooney lays out the war for the Garden State and how it parallels the war for America itself. We aren't just taking back red and purple states, he observes, we're taking the fight into the Democrats' backyard. 

What a low the 2025 election proved after such a magnificent high just 12 months before.

The election pundits swore would be close, even a potential upset, was instead no small source of heartburn for concerned conservatives everywhere. Many were quick to abandon the grand strategy to Make America Great Again (MAGA). Others blamed poor candidates, helpless campaign managers, or the predictably too-little-too-late TV ads. Still more wrote off the losses as "blue voters electing blue politicians in blue states."

There's merit to each of these arguments. But none of them get to the heart of the problem: America's patriots have a problem inspiring—and turning out—America First voters in winning numbers. We're like George Washington, standing on the banks of the Delaware River, knee-deep in snow and doubts, struggling to keep his army together. And like winter 1776, we need a victory to keep hope alive.

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I'm a native son of New Jersey, a blue state most have written off as lost to conservatives forever. And for my entire life, that's been true. Or at least it was, until the MAGA coalition came along and offered working-class New Jerseyans a genuine alternative to the shopworn, corrupt, cynical, Democrat ruling class. After decades of being taxed and regulated into oblivion, there's a rising movement that finally threatens the ossified Trenton elites—one that echoes both the revolutionary spirit of 1776 and the current war for America's soul. 

A Forgotten Fervor

New Jersey has been at the heart of America's story from the very beginning. 

Local historians and colonial reenactors familiar with the Battle of Princeton know that small battle's massive historical reverberations for the Revolution. Gen. Hugh Mercer had his horse shot out from under him during the battle. As he lay on the ground, British soldiers surrounded him and, mistaking him for Washington, demanded his surrender. Refusing, Mercer drew his sword and made his heroic last stand. The British stabbed him seven times with their bayonets.

As for Washington, the general rode between the armies' lines, calling out, "Parade with me, my brave fellows!" before charging into battle. His reinforcements proved decisive in that crucial early American victory, when all seemed hopeless. 

The Battle of Princeton was the culmination of the "10 Crucial Days," which began with Washington crossing the Delaware River on Dec. 25, 1776, to attack veteran Hessian mercenaries at the first Battle of Trenton. Their heroism in the darkest hour heartened the nascent republic to hold fast to the cause of American independence for six more grueling years, when victory came at last.

Modern Americans, centuries removed, might ask, "What were they fighting for?" The best answer is freedom—freedom from oppressive "taxation without representation" and a king who refused to recognize their rights. 

Thomas Jefferson's Declaration of Independence expands on the justification for breaking away from Great Britain—first by expressing the rights of man under the laws of nature and nature's God, then recounting King George III's abridgement of those inalienable rights. The constitutional order that emerged to secure those natural rights still lives on in various states, but New Jersey—the state that boasts the most Revolutionary War battles—is not one of them.

Today, New Jerseyans find themselves in the same position as our forefathers, buckling under burdensome tax hikes imposed by unelected judges without input from the people's representatives. In truth, many of the complaints listed in the Declaration could be applied to the New Jersey Supreme Court. 

How did a state that was once the platform of such revolutionary fervor fall so precipitously? And more importantly, how do America First conservatives retake it—and every other state in the union? That's a story that has its origins in the mid-20th century. 

Tough Realities

Residents of Mercer County—named for that obstinate revolutionary general—recently experienced a record 22 percent property tax hike in a single year. That's in a state where the average annual property tax now tops a record $10,000. One local mayor blamed the tax hike on county officials, who blamed their predecessors. Meanwhile, the State Comptroller's Office found that Mercer County's improper policies had affected the county's finances, and that its former chief financial officer lacked the proper credentials for the job. This revelation led to multimillion-dollar IRS fines and the loss of more than $10 million in state aid. The solution: Bilk, or perhaps "bayonet," taxpayers. 

The clown act continues. Richard LaRossa, a former Republican state senator who represented parts of the county, believes entrenched figures who face no serious electoral challenges are a huge part of the problem. 

"When you have one-party rule, no matter which party it is, there is a certain lack of accountability, and you don't have what I call a positive friction that comes from having checks and balances," LaRossa told Restoration News. "We still don't really know who approved the tax increase or what process was used."

LaRossa is living, breathing, walking history. He entered office on the heels of a tax revolt in the early 1990s called Hands Across New Jersey (HANJ)—an unlikely victory that gave Republicans a veto-proof majority in the state legislature. Democratic Gov. Jim Florio's unpopular $2.8 billion tax hike cost him his 1993 reelection bid in favor of Republican Christine Todd Whitman, who ran on a package of tax cuts. 

But the atmosphere proved far darker in last year's gubernatorial election. Jack Ciattarelli—a businessman and former Republican assemblyman who nearly unseated current Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy in 2021—lost 56–43 percent to Democratic Rep. Mikie Sherrill. Unlike Whitman, Ciattarelli couldn't benefit from a "Gingrich Revolution" red wave. Republican President Donald Trump is also unpopular with the New Jersey electorate—a fact Sherrill capitalized on with the help of Never-Trumpers like Whitman, who endorsed her. It marked the first time since 1961 that the same political party won three consecutive New Jersey gubernatorial races.

New Jersey Democrats have financial and structural advantages that are difficult to overcome. Campaign finance records show that Sherrill and the independent committees that supported her raised more than $51 million and spent about $43 million. By comparison, Ciattarelli and his supporting organizations raised about $47 million and $40 million, respectively. The support from groups outside New Jersey proved significant. The Democratic Governors Association (DGA) committed tens of millions of dollars in resources, vastly outspending its Republican counterpart. 

In an encouraging sign for the future, Ciattarelli did raise more funds from individual in-state donors. But Sherrill received more than twice as much from out-of-state donors as Ciattarelli did—not to mention the power and influence of government unions, especially the teachers’ unions, which overwhelmingly favor Democrats. 

New Jersey Republicans do best in statewide races when they appeal to the state's large bloc of unaffiliated voters. But Micah Rasmussen, director of Rider University's Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics, didn't see either candidate do much to make the race a referendum on the outgoing governor, Murphy. 

"The sharpest contrast for unaffiliated voters, I think, is whether they are any warmer toward a staunch defender or fighter of President Trump's policies," Rasmussen explained. 

But Ciattarelli supporters who spoke with Restoration News on election night at the candidate's headquarters in Bridgewater credited the Republican for building new political coalitions that cut into the Democrats' base—even as he faced an uphill battle. 

"There's the problem of the party in the White House typically losing ground in these off-year elections," said Dennis Pone, a former local party chairman. "I'm also looking at the impact of the government shutdown, although the blame for it seems to be evenly split.

"I think Jack ran the perfect campaign," Pone continued. "He went everywhere and could not have done anything differently. I think he has positioned us for a more favorable cycle [in 2026]."

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