Governor Phil Murphy praised those battleground Democrats who voted in favor of an impeachment inquiry and argued his view that they will have put themselves on more advantageous 2020 footing as a consequence.

Unlike U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew of Congressional District 2, who’s looking to become an impeaching-opposing Republican.

“It’s pathetic,” Murphy told CNN’s Dana Bash this afternoon, digging an elbow into Van Drew.

“A Democrat is going to win that seat in 2020,” said the governor, shortly after Montclair University Political Science Professor Brigid Harrison formally entered the contest as a Democrat.

But President Donald J. Trump won the district, Bash noted.

“You speak to your values,” the progressive Democrat said. “Whenever Democrats get cute and get into another lane, they find other people are already in that lane. They’re called Republicans.

“You get run over when you get in someone else’s lane,” Murphy added.

Bash asked the governor about U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-11), who forced Republican incumbent U.S. Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-11) out of the race in 2018, then soundly defeated movement conservative Republican Jay Webber in the general.

“Mikie’s extraordinary,” said Murphy, putting her in the same category of Trump impeachment inquiry-backing first-time winners in 2018 U.S. Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-7) and U.S. Rep. Andy Kim (D-3).

“They’re good examples of the positive side – standing up and making a decision, and I think they’ll be rewarded for that,” Murphy said.

Unlike Van Drew, he reiterated, who made “his decision based on a poll and one issue.”

There are other issues out there that should have caused Van Drew to remain in the party, Murphy argued: education, women’s health, gun safety, among them.

“It’s time to be a proud Democrat and stand up for what we believe in and he’s chosen not to,” the governor said of the congressman.