The native of the Dominican Republic, who came to Queens more than three decades ago, blamed Biden administration immigration policies for the explosion of prostitution, illegal brothels and unlicensed food carts that have bedevilled his neighbourhood in recent years.
The White House’s position on the war in Gaza peeled away some Muslim voters in key swing states such as Michigan, and it cost them elsewhere, too.
Selaedin Maksut, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in New Jersey, said he voted for Green Party candidate Jill Stein over Harris, though he backed other Democrats.
“It’s a protest vote,” he said. “We’re not going to just give you our vote.”
In New Jersey, US Rep. Andy Kim, who previously captured a House district claimed by Trump in 2020, carried Passaic County in his winning Senate race. It shows, he said in an interview, that people see local and state issues differently than national ones. He said voters have told him they appreciate his focus on “broken politics.”
“If these are people who are distrusting of government, I think my message is saying, like, look I am also frustrated with how things are happening.”
Ocasio-Cortez, like Kim, invited split-ticket voters to weigh in on social media about how they could back both Trump and her. That resonated across the Hudson River in New Jersey, where John Coiro, a patron at Murph’s and a Trump supporter, said he respected her for asking the question.
Trump’s performance could force a reckoning among Democrats in places where they are accustomed to winning regularly.
Ralph Caputo, a former state legislator from northern New Jersey, said Trump, unlike Democrats, connected with different groups of voters. Trump was sharper, too, Caputo said, because he had been tested in the primaries, something Harris did not face because of Biden’s late withdrawal from the race in July.
“Those days are over where you just put somebody up for election and think they’re going to win because they’re on a Democratic ballot,” Caputo said. “They can’t win automatically.”
