Joe Salerno, the Democratic candidate for Congress in New Jersey’s 2nd Congressional District, has raised more than $200,000 in the 20 days since becoming the party’s nominee, his campaign said Monday.
Salerno, 62, of Lower Township, is running against incumbent Republican Jeff Van Drew, R-2nd.
“It’s heartening to see,” Salerno said in a news release. “My opponent didn’t have to tap into his incumbent war chest because he had an uncontested primary. So we still have a lot of road to make up. But it’s gratifying that more and more people are standing behind me with their votes, their hearts, and their financial support.”
Salerno has raised more than $1 million to date, according to the campaign, which said Van Drew spent more than $3 million in the 2022 campaign. Salerno is an engineer, a former business owner who taught himself coding and sold a tech business he developed to S&P Global, and has a law degree.
He has said he was motivated to run because of Van Drew’s increasing support of former President Donald Trump and his policies, and what he saw as Van Drew’s sharp turn to the political right.
Van Drew was first elected as a Democrat in 2018, but switched parties in 2019 after refusing to vote to impeach Trump and being threatened with non support by South Jersey Democrats as a result. He was re-elected again in 2020 and 2022 as a Republican.
