PHILADELPHIA (AP/ KYW Newsradio) — Republican Jack Ciattarelli has won his party’s nomination for governor, setting him up for a clash with Democratic nominee Mikie Sherrill in November’s general election.
It’s the former state assemblyman’s second consecutive nomination for governor. Ciattarelli ran in 2021 against Gov. Phil Murphy in a closer race than many pundits expected, losing by just 74,000 votes.
Ciattarelli enjoyed a strong polling lead in the run-up to this year’s primary, outpacing opponents Bill Spadea and Jon Bramnick — which was enhanced by an endorsement from President Donald Trump.
"Jack Ciattarelli is a WINNER, and has my Complete and Total Endorsement – HE WILL NOT LET YOU DOWN," Trump wrote on social media last month. “MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, ELECT JACK CIATTARELLI!”
Ciattarelli defeated four rivals and now heads into the general election, seeking to win back the governorship for Republicans after two straight Democratic victories.
Speaking to supporters after his victory Tuesday night, he thanked Trump for endorsing him, telling the crowd, “We won because we were positive, we had the issues that matter.”
The crowd loudly booed when he mentioned Murphy and Sherrill, calling her “Phil Murphy 2.0.”
Sherrill defeated a fellow House member, the mayors of the state’s two biggest cities, a former top state legislator, and the head of the influential teachers’ union.
Murphy offered kudos to both candidates in a statement, writing, “After a hard-fought primary campaign, New Jersey voters have spoken, and they have selected Mikie Sherrill and Jack Ciattarelli as the Democratic and Republican nominees for Governor, respectively. I want to offer my congratulations to both Mikie and Jack for earning the trust and support of primary voters all across our state.”
Ciattarelli’s challenge
Ciattarelli defeated former talk radio host Spadea, state Sen. Bramnick, former Englewood Cliffs Mayor Mario Kranjac and contractor Justin Barbera to win the GOP primary.
As Ciattarelli turns his attention to the general election, he confronts a balancing act in a state that leans toward Democrats but has shown a willingness to elect Republicans as governor.
On one hand, he and the president have embraced one another, and Ciattarelli remains popular with the GOP base, which has largely unified after eight years of Democratic control of state government. But to win in November, Ciattarelli will have to appeal to New Jersey’s wider electorate, which has never supported Trump in his three presidential campaigns despite the president’s strong ties to New Jersey, where he has owned casinos and other high-profile properties.
Ciattarelli’s campaign touts the president’s 2024 performance in the state, where he lost by 6 percentage points compared to a 16-point defeat in 2020, as a sign that the GOP is poised for a comeback. It also notes a decline for Democrats in registration as an indicator that voters are disillusioned with the party that has long prevailed in most statewide elections, though they occasionally have tapped Republicans as governor.
The two open races for governor this year — the other is in Virginia — could offer signals about how the public is responding to Trump’s agenda and whether Democrats have succeeded in their efforts to rebuild after defeat in 2024.
New Jersey has been reliably Democratic in Senate and presidential contests for decades. But the odd-year races for governor have tended to swing back and forth, and each of the last three GOP governors has won a second term.