‘Daddy Trump,’ data centers and the Iran war: Here are the highlights from Jeff Van Drew’s debate with Zack Mullock

U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew and Democratic challenger Zack Mullock fought over a slew of local and national issues impacting South Jerseyans in a tense debate Thursday night as their once sleepy race sees increasing national attention and spending in the final days before the midterm.

Despite a ramped-up focus on the race, the two candidates squared off in a mostly empty theater at Stockton University with the debate only open to journalists and the sound of a cameras shuttering the only noise heard in the absence of an audience. Mullock, the mayor of Cape May, said he wanted a live audience but Van Drew wouldn’t agree to one.

In an interview with The Inquirer after the debate, the incumbent Republican said it was a safety concern — the same reason he doesn’t hold open in-person town halls, which Mullock criticized.

Throughout the debate, Mullock interrupted Van Drew and accused him of telling falsehoods. Van Drew, meanwhile, derided his challenger as “Mr. Pinocchio.”

The sprawling 2nd Congressional District stretches from Gloucester County to the Jersey shore. National Democrats added the district to a growing list of target races earlier this month, but it’s less likely to flip than some other seats in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Here are the highlights from the debate:

Van Drew won the seat in 2018 as a Democrat before switching parties to become a Republican a year later and vowing his “undying support” to Trump.

Mullock said Thursday that Van Drew “looks up to the president like a child” and follows his “daddy Trump.”

When asked what issues he disagrees with his party on, Van Drew said he believed Republicans should have extended Obamacare subsidies — though he opposed a Democratic-led effort to extend the subsidies for three years.

He also said he opposed Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s plan to livestream the firing-squad execution of an Army officer convicted in a 2009 mass shooting at Fort Hood./

As for Trump, Van Drew said he opposed the president’s past desire for offshore oil leases in New Jersey and his resistance to releasing the Epstein files.

Mullock pointed out that Van Drew was not among the Republicans who tried to force a floor vote on the files.

“He knew that some girls as young as 14 had been sexually assaulted, and he refused to sign the discharge petition. … When the victims needed him, he didn’t vote for it,” Mullock said.

Van Drew said he didn’t want to send the bill to the floor without going through the committee process and that he was a sponsor of a bill calling for the files’ release before Trump expressed his approval upon realizing he lacked support within his own party to keep the files under wraps.

Mullock said he has plenty of experience working across the aisle in his nonpartisan local government and said he’s hired Republican city managers. He also said he thought Democrats “did a bad job on the border.”

At another point in the debate Mullock said farms and restaurants in the district rely on immigrants who haven’t broken the law and deserve a path to citizenship. He said he supports having “a strong border” and getting “rid of violent criminals” but that ICE sweeps under Trump are “terrorizing communities and scaring school children.”

Van Drew criticized Democratic policies in the state that limit local law enforcement’s cooperation with ICE as well as a legal defense fund for undocumented immigrants.

He also called Mullock a “democratic socialist” because he’s supported Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who has long used the label. But the Cape May mayor said he does not identify with that term.

Mullock accused Van Drew of voting for the war in Iran six times, in reference to House resolutions seeking to restrict Trump’s power to continue the war without congressional approval. Trump launched the war in coordination with Israel in February and went past the deadline for approval in May.

Van Drew disputed Mullock’s characterization. “There was never a vote for the war in Iran,” Van Drew said.

“I did vote not to end hostilities absolutely immediately because it would have endangered our troops,” he added.

Mullock called it a “war of stupidity” and questioned what the war has done to help South Jerseyans, pointing to the high price of gas at the pump and diesel for farmers since the war stressed the global oil supply chain.

“Ronald Reagan is rolling in his grave right now,” Mullock said, contending the Republican who oversaw the late stages of the Cold War would disapprove of Trump’s deal to purchase fuel from Russia to control costs.

“You had a chance to stop it and you didn’t,” Mullock said to Van Drew.

After the debate, Van Drew said in an interview that he believes there will be an opportunity to leave Iran “soon.”

“I think this next Congress, regardless of whoever has control, is going to say, ‘OK, what’s the end game here?’” He said he supported Trump’s decision to start the war to go after nuclear enrichment and long-range ballistic missiles, but that it “does need to end” with a safe exit strategy.

Mullock said Van Drew’s campaign is “sponsored by data centers,” in reference to campaign donations from John Ruga, who leads a concrete company that helped develop the controversial Vineland data center.Ruga has said that Van Drew’s support for the project was “critical.”

Mullock also pointed to Van Drew’s vote for the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which he said gave money to data centers while cutting Medicaid. According to Politifact, the law let companies with data centers write off equipment costs quicker than before.

“It is no coincidence that the poorest county in the state is being taken advantage of right now, and you’re letting it happen,” Mullock said in reference to the massive Cumberland County data center, which was recently hit with a $1 million fine from the state.

Van Drew said he’s known the concrete contractor, who has worked on various projects in the area, for years. He pointed to a bipartisan bill he supported last month that seeks to put guardrails on energy costs caused by data centers.

“I never met the data center people,” Van Drew said. “I don’t know who they are.”