Ras Baraka’s arrest thrust him into the national spotlight as voters make up their mind in the N.J. governor’s race

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka’s arrest at an ICE facility on Friday thrust him into the national spotlight as a fighter of President Donald Trump just weeks before New Jersey Democrats are to decide whom they want as their candidate for governor. In a race that has so far been about who could best take on the president, the arrest was well-timed.

Baraka’s voice can already be heard in stadiums across the country, since his political spoken-word poem from the early 2000s is featured on Beyoncé’s tour. (He was also featured as a teacher — when he was actually an elementary school teacher — on Lauryn Hill’s 1998 album, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.)

But now, Americans tuned into national TV could put his name to his face — and his face to the election to succeed term-limited Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy.

How could the visibility boost affect Baraka’s chances in the race?

All six candidates in the Democratic primary argue they are the best person to fight Trump. The president offered his highly sought endorsement in the GOP primary on Monday to former Assembly member Jack Ciattarelli, and Democratic operatives are already using it against the potential Republican candidate in hopes of reaching voters who are dissatisfied with Trump’s term so far.

Baraka’s arrest could be the proof voters need that he can stand up to Trump.

“He has the bona fides to show it,” said Antoinette Miles, the director of the New Jersey Working Families Party, which endorsed Baraka. “He doesn’t just say, like, ‘I’m a fighter.’”

Standing up to Trump is “one of the most important things” candidates in the competitive Democratic primary race need to convince voters they can do, said Micah Rasmussen, the director of the Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics.

“The question voters will have to answer: Is this what we meant by stand up to Trump?” he added.

The answer to that question could alter the June 10 primary, in which the winner could claim victory with less than 20% of the vote.

On Friday, Baraka attempted to conduct an oversight tour with members of Congress at a newly opened Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Newark that he has long opposed. Federal agents accused him of trespassing and arrested him outside the facility’s gates. The incident caused a national uproar among Democrats, and his five primary competitors came to his defense. Republicans used the opportunity to attack him. He was riding the national news cycle.

Baraka’s arrest follows another Newark politician’s time in the national spotlight for resisting Trump: Democrat Sen. Cory Booker, a former Newark mayor, spent 25 hours criticizing the president on the Senate floor earlier this year. Both made headlines at a time when Democratic Party leaders have been criticized for not doing more to push back against Trump.

Baraka has been trying to reach voters who feel they have been ignored by the Democratic Party, namely working-class voters of color who don’t show up to every election but do vote when they are motivated enough. This political moment could build momentum for those voters — and reach others. Miles said, for example, that canvassers for Baraka noticed that Princeton voters were excited over the weekend about Baraka’s national moment.

Baraka’s campaign raised money off his arrest while he was still detained on Friday, and, according to NBC News, a pro-Baraka super PAC plans to launch an ad highlighting his arrest.

A Rutgers-Eagleton Poll in early April found that 36% of Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters had not made up their mind about which candidate they prefer in the primary. Many voters earlier this year were still exhausted from the 2024 election or too wrapped up in national news to tune in to the gubernatorial primary, and primaries in off-year elections generally have lower turnout anyway. But with the primary less than a month away and voters already returning mail ballots, now is the time they are deciding whom they support.

“Just as many voters are making up their minds, Baraka is national news,” Rasmussen said. “And I think it would take a lot for any candidate to get more coverage than Baraka’s arrest has gotten.”

That recognition could be “for better or for worse,” he added.

At a Democratic debate Monday night, Briana Vannozzi, an NJ Spotlight News anchor, asked Baraka how voters can trust that he could work with the federal government and not “interfere with federal law enforcement.”

“We haven’t interfered with federal law enforcement,” Baraka responded. “What they can trust is that we will protect them at all costs, and that’s what people need now. They need leadership. They don’t need people to acquiesce, to hide in the middle, to run under this veil of ‘I’m working with the president of the United States.’”

Baraka is one of the most progressive candidates in the race and he has argued that Democrats should not play nice with Trump.

New Jersey Republicans offered a chorus of attacks on Baraka the night he got arrested. The moment — and Republicans’ interpretation of what happened — is political fodder to describe Baraka as antithetical to Trump’s tough-on-crime approach to undocumented immigrants. They accused him of a political stunt — which he denies.

They also took the opportunity to make broad attacks on the city of Newark, where Baraka has been mayor for a decade.

Rasmussen said that Republicans are “salivating at the chance” that Baraka’s arrest helps him win the Democratic primary.

“If they could take their pick, he’d be the one that they would run against,” he said.