TRENTON, N.J. (AP/WCBS 880) — Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop announced Tuesday he’s running to be New Jersey’s next governor, aiming to succeed term-limited Democrat Phil Murphy.
Fulop, the third-term Democratic mayor of the state’s second-biggest city, announced his bid in a video posted online. A former Marine who served in Iraq after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Fulop launched his bid more than two years ahead of the 2025 election.
Fulop told On the Record with Steve Scott that he's already announced he's running because "he wants to build a campaign independent of the political structure of the political machine in New Jersey."
"The hope is that you get everybody on board, but you prepare from building an issue-oriented grassroots campaign, and you need time to do that," the mayor said.
Fulop is the first of what is expected to be many Democrats to vie to succeed Murphy, who won reelection in 2021 and is barred from seeking a third straight term.
He told Scott that he believes he is "uniquely qualified" to be governor because of his experience as mayor of Jersey City.
Fulop said the "core components" of the campaign are transportation and affordability, though he admits much could change over the next 18 to 24 months.
He said he passed up an opportunity to run for governor in 2017, which allowed him to become a "better mayor" and that he's "grown as a person."
"I think I'm a better administrator every day that I've been in this job, and I have a strong track record of leadership here," he added.
His announcement video features former Marine comrades saying Fulop pushed for Kuwaitis working alongside U.S. troops to be equipped with gas masks, just as Americans had been.
“I believe leadership is about standing up for what you believe in even when it’s not popular, and then fighting successfully to get it done.,” he says in the video.
New Jersey has about a million more registered Democrats than Republicans. Still, voters have elected several Republican governors in recent decades, including Christine Todd Whitman and Chris Christie, who each served two terms. Murphy was the first Democratic governor to win reelection in more than four decades.
On the Republican side, 2021 GOP nominee Jack Ciattarelli has said he plans to seek his party’s nomination again in 2025.
New Jersey and Virginia are the only two states that elect their governors a year after presidential elections.
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