WILDWOOD, N.J. — By Monday at 3 p.m., the line outside the convention center had snaked up and down several blocks, and was growing quickly.
Those with spots close to the front had arrived at about 2 p.m. on Sunday and had spent the night bundled in blankets, “Keep America Great” flags and woolen Trump 2020 hats.
And President Trump was not even scheduled to appear at the convention center until Tuesday night.
But such was the anticipation in Wildwood, one of the Jersey Shore’s most popular destinations, where Mr. Trump was planning to hold his first political rally in New Jersey since taking office.
“He’s the only president in my lifetime who actually did what he said he was going to do,” said Russ Hickman, 55, of Dias Creek, N.J., who was fifth in line.
Mr. Trump’s decision to stage one of his raucous rallies in Wildwood, motivated by a desire to support a local congressman who had recently switched parties, has upended the usual rhythms of this beach community about 160 miles south of New York City.
Seasonal workers were back on the job. Motels have reopened and restaurants and bars have awaked from winter hibernation.
The LED lights on the towering Ferris wheel near the convention center have been specially programmed to pulse in patterns of red, white and blue.
“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, regardless of your political view,” Nick Holland, 29, said Monday as he worked the front desk of the local recreation center.
“Today I put up signs: Welcome Mr. President. I never thought I would do that in my lifetime,” he said. “You can feel the energy. It reminds me of Christmas Eve, and tomorrow Santa’s coming.”
As his impeachment trial unfolds in Washington, Mr. Trump is headed into what in some ways is enemy territory. New Jersey is a Democratic stronghold where Hillary Clinton easily beat him statewide by 14 percentage points and where a so-called blue wave helped to flip four Republican congressional seats in 2018.
Most of Mr. Trump’s campaign rallies have been held in states where a majority of voters supported him in 2016, and are critical battleground states ahead of this year’s election.
But Wildwood, in Cape May County, is in a district far more friendly to Republicans.
It leans conservative and is represented by Jeff Van Drew, a freshman congressman who opposed impeachment and last month defected from the Democratic Party to join the Republicans with a pledge of “undying support” for Mr. Trump.
In turn, the president promised to campaign for Mr. Van Drew, and the rally was announced not long after the congressman switched parties. Mr. Van Drew is expected to travel with the president to the rally at the Wildwood Convention Center, where they will both address the crowd, officials said.
Thousands of ticket holders were expected to brave cold and windy weather and long lines for a shot at one of the approximately 7,000 first-come-first-served seats inside the convention hall.
Rick Dunston, 54, of Point Pleasant, N.J., sat in line cooking sausages, peppers and fried apples as drivers passed, honking horns and shouting “U.S.A.”
“I’m hoping Trump will deregulation the nation,” said Mr. Dunston, who said he struggled unsuccessfully to keep his small construction company afloat, burdened by complex licensing rules and high taxes.
Like Mr. Dunston, many people in line said it would be their first Trump rally.
Mr. Hickman, who works in maintenance at the public school district in Mr. Van Drew’s hometown of Dennis, said he voted for Mr. Van Drew as a Democrat and would eagerly support him for re-election as a Republican.
“I figured he was pretty much that anyway,” he said. “It just makes me pulling his lever a little easier.”
Protesters — and many of the Democrats vying for a chance to unseat Mr. Van Drew — also were expected to be out in force on Tuesday.
“There’s definitely way more of a progressive movement down here than people realize,” said Shayla Woolfort, a chairwoman of Cape May County Indivisible, which is organizing a protest that the group says will include 30 other grass-roots organizations from New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
Martin Luther King III, the oldest son of the civil rights leader, is expected to be the keynote speaker. Several of Mr. Van Drew’s Democratic opponents, including Ashley Bennett, Will Cunningham, Brigid Callahan Harrison and Amy Kennedy, are also scheduled to address the crowd at the counter rally.
“The racism, the violence, the corruption — we reject all of it,” an Indivisible organizer, Cassandra Gatelein, said of the Trump administration. “We definitely want to stand in solidarity with all the marginalized communities that he is hurting.”
Like many other people involved in the local planning for the event, Tracey DuFault, the director of the Greater Wildwood Chamber of Commerce, said the rally was an economic boon for a tourist town with a wintertime population of about 5,000. It is believed to be the first time a sitting president has ever visited Wildwood.
“I think people just want to be in the area because it is such a historic event,” Ms. DuFault said.
When she was in her 20s, Ms. DuFault worked for Mr. Trump at his bankrupt Atlantic City casinos, making arrangements for high-rolling gamblers.
“I knew his first wife. I knew his second wife. I did not meet his third,” Ms. DuFault said. “It was a fun job.”
As head of the Chamber of Commerce, she spent the last several weeks updating and publicizing a list of businesses that still had available overnight lodging. She said about 20 hotels and motels had either reopened or booked guests on floors that are typically closed in winter in order to meet the surge in room requests.
Joe Tartamosa and his 16-year-old son, Nick, planned to stay in one of the reopened motels after the rally. They left their home in Woodbury Heights, N.J., in the middle of the night and arrived at 4:30 a.m. Monday to guarantee they would see the president speak.
“I believe in his values and what he’s doing,” Mr. Tartamosa said of Mr. Trump. “I believe it’s better than what the other side has to offer.”
The convention hall can hold 7,400 people, including invited V.I.P. guests, said John Siciliano, executive director of the Wildwoods Tourism Authority, which operates the convention center. The Trump campaign paid $7,600 to rent the facility, he said, and will also be responsible for other costs, including increased security.
“It’s just a huge deal that a president of the United States is going to visit our town,” Mr. Siciliano said.
Doors open at 3 p.m., and ticket holders will be allowed inside on the basis of arrival, leading to the early line of people.
“To me, it’s like a tailgate, a Sunday afternoon football tailgate,” said Wildwood’s mayor, Pete Byron.
Wildwood is best known for its wide sandy beaches, an expansive boardwalk and an assortment of amusement and water parks that operate on oceanside piers.
At 11 a.m. each summer morning, loudspeakers blast the “The Star-Spangled Banner” and Kate Smith’s rendition of “God Bless America.” The beloved tradition came under scrutiny last year after revelations that Smith’s recording catalog featured racist songs, but the former mayor said the patriotic medley would not be altered.
Maggie Warner Wisniewski, a spokeswoman for Morey’s Piers, which operates several hotels and amusement parks, said it became clear after rooms in the company’s Starlux hotel sold out that they would need to open the Blue Palm, a 52-room inn normally closed in winter.
“We sold out very quickly,” she said.
She declined to share her thoughts about Mr. Trump, but said his visit is no doubt good for the city’s reputation. “It’s just kind of putting Wildwood on the map,” Ms. Wisniewski said.
It’s also been good for business, said Eric Hanson, the manager of the Blue Water Grille restaurant. He and his mixologists crafted a bipartisan menu of drinks for the occasion, with names like subpoena-colada, MAGA-margarita and impeachment punch.
“You’ve got to have fun with it,” he said.
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