BRANCHBURG - Pete Buttigieg spoke on Rebecca Bennett's behalf. So did Maryland Congressman Jamie Raskin.

And, of course, Bennett spoke as well.

But that in itself was not the story.

The story was the crowd. The Bennett campaign said 1,200 people signed up for this evening's rally. More apparently showed up. The first floor and the balcony of the Edward Nash Theatre at Raritan Valley Community College was filled to the brim. All this for an event slated to start at 5:30 p.m. on a Friday.

It is true that Raskin and "Mayor Pete" are national figures. Buttigieg ran for president once, and may do so again.

Still, Team Bennett has got to see such a large crowd as boding well for Nov. 3.

Bennett gave her usual stump speech about living the American Dream, detailing her military career, going to college with help from the GI Bill and moving to suburban New Jersey.

But on this night, she struck a more bipartisan chord, saying at one point that she was sure the audience included independents and some Republicans willing to "put country over party."

Raskin, as he normally is, was quite energized.

He had the crowd on its feet as he talked about the need to protect the Constitution and traditional American freedoms.

To that end,he quoted Thomas Paine's famous line - seemingly from memory - ,about how the "summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph."

For Raskin, Bennett and everyone else in the room, the hope is for that "triumph" to arrive in two and a half weeks.

And if it does, Raskin predicted that Bennett will go to Congress and "drive Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans crazy."

Buttigieg, as is his wont, was a bit more cerebral than Raskin. And he had the local touch.

Speaking about his time running the U.S. Transportation Department under Joe Biden, Buttigieg spoke of rail improvements in Westfield and elsewhere in the sprawling district.

He said today's poor economy can make it difficult for families to take vacations or for young people to buy their first home.

Then, he got around to Tom Kean Jr.

"There's this little project known as the Gateway Tunnel," he said.

The crowd knew what was coming.

Buttigieg related how Congress appropriated the funds for the tunnel, but that Trump blocked them, an outgrowth of last fall's government shutdown.

Many New Jersey officials from both parties, Kean included, supported the tunnel. And the money was eventually restored.

That was because what Trump did was illegal, Buttigieg said, adding:

Not because of anything Kean did.