Van Drew defends decision to ask Supreme Court to overturn Biden’s victory

Now we know why Rep. Jeff Van Drew joined the Republican lawsuit asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.

Making the same claims as other Republicans who supported President Donald Trump, Van Drew said there were questions about how the election was conducted for president, even as dozens of lawsuits were rejected by federal and state courts for lack of evidence.

“We need to ensure that we have the highest level of integrity in our elections and quite frankly we haven’t,” Van Drew, R-2nd Dist., said Tuesday on the Fox News Channel.

“Certain states changed their election laws changed the way they went about voting, in a very serious and significant way without the legislature meeting and the legislature voting on it. That’s unconstitutional. That’s not legal.”

Van Drew was one of 126 GOP House members who filed a brief supporting the lawsuit filed by Texas and 17 other Republican-led states, objecting to the way that Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin conducted the elections, expanding absentee voting due to the coronavirus. All four states singled out have Republican-controlled legislatures.

New Jersey was one of 20 states, some with Republican governors, who filed their own brief challenging the Texas effort.

The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed the suit without holding a hearing, saying Texas had no authority to bring it.

Biden won all four battleground states en route to the presidency. Van Drew was one of several prominent New Jersey Republicans who refused to acknowledge Biden’s victory even after the states certified their results. The Electoral College confirmed Biden’s win Monday.

The New Jersey Democratic State Committee on Wednesday sought to raise funds off Van Drew’s support of the lawsuit, calling the congressman’s action a “stunt” and the lawmaker “an opportunist who will do anything to score points with Trump’s radical conservative base.”

A fellow New Jersey lawmaker, Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr., D-9th Dist., last week proposed not seating any of the Republicans who joined the Texas lawsuit.

Van Drew called it “absurd.”

“The notion that after the people voted for me, that I couldn’t sit in the House of Representatives, that you would literally disenfranchise my voters in my district, is an absurd notion,” Van Drew said.

Pascrell said the Republican lawmakers’ attempt to overturn the election ran afoul of the 14th Amendment, which says no one can serve in Congress who “shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion.”

“Stated simply, men and women who would act to tear the United States government apart cannot serve as members of the Congress,” Pascrell wrote.

Van Drew switched parties after voting against impeaching Trump. First elected to the House as a Democrat in 2018, he won a second term last month as a Republican, defeating well-financed Democratic challenger Amy Kennedy.

Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant.

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