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Suburbanites Embrace Anti-Trump Fight 03/26 06:26
MONTCLAIR, N.J. (AP) -- A few years ago, Allison Posner was barely involved
in politics.
Now the 42-year-old mother of two from Maplewood, New Jersey, hands out food
and diapers to immigrant families outside a nearby detention facility. She
waves signs on a highway overpass in between school pickups and orthodontist
appointments. And this weekend, she'll lead a "No Kings" protest march across
this affluent town alongside her husband, her children and thousands of others
who are convinced that President Donald Trump represents a direct threat to
American democracy.
"The people in the suburbs are definitely radicalizing," said Posner, a
freelance actor.
A growing faction of concerned citizens living in suburban communities
across the United States -- places once known for political moderation or even
conservatism -- are increasingly positioned on the front lines of the
anti-Trump resistance. More than a year into the Republican president's second
term, the so-called "soccer moms" are becoming bona fide activists taking to
their well-manicured streets to fight Trump and his allies.
The leftward lurch could cost Republicans control of Congress for the
president's final two years in office. It could also reshape the Democratic
Party by elevating a fresh crop of fiery progressive candidates emboldened to
push back against the Trump administration more aggressively than the
establishment may prefer.
Indivisible, the activist organization spearheading the third round of No
Kings protests this weekend, said roughly two-thirds of more than 3,000 planned
demonstrations will be held outside urban areas. Overall, more than 9 million
people are expected to turn out nationwide for what leaders predict will be the
largest single day of protesting in U.S. history.
"We're going to be everywhere," said Indivisible co-founder Ezra Levin.
Organizers said sign-ups have been especially enthusiastic in suburban areas
with high-profile congressional races like Scottsdale, Arizona; Langhorne,
Pennsylvania; East Cobb, Georgia; and here in northern New Jersey's 11th
district, which holds a special election April 7.
Democratic voters last month chose Analilia Mejia, a former political
director for Sen. Bernie Sanders, as their candidate to replace Mikie Sherrill,
the more moderate Democrat who was recently elected as New Jersey's governor.
Posner said she's excited to have a fighter represent her district, someone
who can channel the outrage that she sees every day.
"I'm seeing people from the PTA or the neighborhood who would have never
joined a protest in the past, who are now asking how they can get involved,"
Posner said. "This is not some other people's fight. This is our fight."
'Hair on fire'
For decades, affluent suburbs like those in northern New Jersey helped elect
Republicans who fit the districts they represented: business-oriented,
culturally moderate and disinterested in ideological fights.
That began to change in the Trump era.
Across the country, college-educated suburban voters recoiled from Trump's
brand of politics. They shifted sharply toward Democrats in the 2018 midterms
and in the presidential elections that followed. Districts like New Jersey's
11th, once a Republican stronghold, have since become part of a new liberal
coalition rooted in places that were, until very recently, politically
competitive.
Even in Summit, New Jersey, one of the nation's wealthiest suburbs, Jeff
Naiman feels like he's living in an "authoritarian nightmare" of Trump's making.
"It's like our hair is on fire," says Naiman, a 59-year-old radiologist who
leads his local chapter of Indivisible. "Our country's being torn apart."
He's supporting Mejia, and he has no doubt that she will win next month's
special election -- and again in November's general election.
"In this environment," Naiman said, "I think the chances of her losing the
general election are basically zero."
Mejia, an outspoken progressive activist endorsed by Sanders and Rep.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., emerged from the crowded Democratic primary
last month, beating more moderate candidates like former congressman Tom
Malinowski.
She's critical of Israel's war in Gaza, calls for the abolition of the U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and backs Medicare for All. She's also
eager to raise concerns about what she describes as Trump's dictatorial
tendencies, and will be one of the featured speakers at a "No Kings" protest
this weekend.
"A ZIP code does not protect anyone from rising violent authoritarianism,"
she said in an interview.
Mejia still describes herself as a "soccer mom," even as her Republican
critics accuse her of trying to soften her activist image ahead of Election Day.
"My youngest plays baseball and soccer, my oldest lacrosse and basketball,"
she said. "And when I take my children to activities, to games, and I speak to
other parents, I know that we're all experiencing this economy and this
political moment very similarly."
Mejia defended herself against accusations of antisemitism for her position
on Israel, which she accused of committing genocide in the war in Gaza, a topic
that emerged as a key issue in the race.
"When I say Palestinians have rights, like Jewish people and Israelis have
rights, that is not antisemitism, that is humanism," she said while
acknowledging there is antisemitism within the Republican and Democratic
parties. "I am an Afro Latina raising two Black sons in America. I know
othering kills. I know how dangerous it is when we dehumanize communities."
A Republican balancing act
New Jersey's 11th district was represented by a Republican until Sherrill
was elected during the 2018 midterm elections that served as a harsh verdict at
the halfway mark of Trump's first term.
Joe Hathaway, the Republican nominee in next month's special election and a
town councilman from Randolph Township, hopes to convince voters that Mejia is
too radical for them. Republican strategists in Washington, too, believe a
surge of far-left Democratic candidates nationwide like Mejia in otherwise
moderate districts might help their party maintain its razor-thin House
majority this fall.
Yet suburban Republicans are facing serious political headwinds from the
leader of their own party in the White House. Hathaway, for example, initially
declined to say whether he voted for Trump.
"I don't think it's important," he said in an interview, before
acknowledging that he cast his ballot for the president three times. "This job
is representing the district, NJ-11 comes first, before a president, before
your party."
Hathaway backs the president's war in Iran and many of the economic policies
in Trump's "one big, beautiful" bill. But he was also quick to highlight areas
of disagreement.
The Republican said he supports most of the Democrats' demands in the
Department of Homeland Security shutdown fight, including proposals to require
federal immigration agents to wear body cameras, clearly identify themselves,
take off face masks and receive better training.
He also wants Republicans who lead Congress to stand up to Trump, whose use
of executive authority Hathaway said is "pressure testing" the checks and
balances outlined in the Constitution.
"Congress needs to reassert that it is the first branch of government and
take more of a leadership role than it's been doing," he said.
Inside the suburban shift
Suburban Americans have been slowly moving away from the Republicans over
the past 15 years, according to Gallup polling that tracks party affiliation
over time.
Trump was unable to stop the shift despite warnings that Democrats would
"destroy" the suburbs with low-income housing.
In 2020, Joe Biden won 54% of voters who said they lived in the suburbs
while Trump won only 44%, according to AP VoteCast. That was a substantial
improvement on Democrat Hillary Clinton's performance in a smaller survey of
validated 2016 voters conducted by the Pew Research Center, which found that
Clinton and Trump split the group about evenly.
The suburbs have also grown more diverse and educated over the past few
decades, demographic shifts that may make Democrats more confident. In both of
the past two presidential elections, AP VoteCast found that college-educated
and non-white suburban voters were much likelier to support the Democratic
candidate.
Naiman, the Summit radiologist, said he's witnessed a transformation in his
town, which was represented by Republicans at the state and federal level for
decades until Trump took over.
"I don't think that Summit is going to be swinging towards Republicans
anytime soon -- at least not as long as Trumpism is around," he said.
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