The document is a pledge to President Donald Trump, circulated by the Republican National Committee, that says “I am 100% behind you during these critical times” and attacks Democrats and the media. | Mikko Stig/Lehtikuva via AP South Jersey Republican assemblymen fight over loyalty to Trump

A Republican state assemblyman from South Jersey who went full MAGA after he lost party support amid suspicion he flirted with becoming a Democrat has challenged his primary opponent to sign a pro-Trump pledge.

Assemblyman Joe Howarth (R-Burlington) on Sunday night emailed Assemblyman Ryan Peters (R-Burlington) a document to sign “so that any doubts about your support for our President and his mission to ‘Make America Great Again’ can be put to rest.”


Peters has refused to sign the pledge.

Howarth copied reporters at several news organizations, including POLITICO, on the email.

The document is a pledge to President Donald Trump, circulated by the Republican National Committee, that says “I am 100% behind you during these critical times” and attacks Democrats and the media.

Howarth, however, is a recent pro-Trump convert. Burlington County, once dominated by Republicans, has been leaning Democratic after a national backlash against Trump in major metro-area suburbs. Earlier this year, Dawn Addiego, the state senator representing the 8th Legislative District, converted from Republican to Democrat amid lobbying from the latter.

Some Republicans, scrambling to shore up the local GOP, complained they couldn’t reach Howarth for days after Addiego converted and suspected he was in talks with Democrats about joining their party. He soon lost party support, with Burlington County Republicans choosing retiring Sheriff Jean Stanfield to run for his seat along with Peters. Howarth decided to run without party support with the ballot slogan “MAGA Republican.”

“I don't need to sign a political pledge to prove my commitment to the Constitution and Commander-in-Chief. I've done it every time I've left a secure base in the middle of the night, in a faraway land, to defend our flag,” wrote Peters, a Navy SEAL and combat veteran. “I understand that kind of loyalty and sense of purpose is lost on someone who, as soon as the going got tough for Republicans in Burlington County, did everything he could to bail on our party and begged the Democrats to take him in.”

Running as a pro-Trump candidate in the 8th District is a risky proposition. In 2017, Peters and Howarth won reelection by razor-thin margins without Democrats making much of a concerted effort against them. Democrats are expected to pour major resources into the district this year. The district includes parts of Burlington, Atlantic and Camden counties.

Peters, 37, in an emailed response to Howarth, refused to sign the pledge, saying that in the military, he has “faithfully served multiple Presidents, including President Trump, and would do so again in a moment’s notice.”

Peters and Howarth have both been critical of Trump in the past. In his email, Howarth included a short video clip Peters posted to Facebook in January in which he said he doesn’t blame U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) for calling Trump a “motherfucker.”

“She’s merely following the path of President Trump, who’s a master of the name game, who constantly puts an insulting adjective before everybody’s first name” Peters said. He then cited a painting of former House Speaker Tip O’Neill that sat by former President Ronald Reagan’s bedside after the 1981 assassination attempt against Reagan.

“We need to return to this level of civility. Not the divisive rhetoric we currently have,” Peters said.

Howarth said in a letter to Peters that it was “disturbing to me that you not only produced a video publicly condemning President Trump, you also went so far as to defend the Democrat congresswoman who disrespected him.“

In September 2015, Howarth, 55, urged his Facebook followers not to vote for Trump, sharing a Jeb Bush post about the “liberal things that Trump says” and writing, “The more u get to know him, the more he will lose ground.”

Within days of filing to run for reelection as a MAGA Republican, Howarth — who up to that point had introduced largely uncontroversial legislation — proposed two bills that targeted undocumented immigrants, as well as an anti-abortion resolution.