Former state legislator Jack Ciattarelli has won the Republican primary for governor in New Jersey with the backing of President Donald Trump, NBC News projects.
Ciattarelli defeated four other Republicans for the nomination, taking advantage of the president’s endorsement as he made his case to GOP voters that he is the Trump ally best positioned to win the Democratic-leaning state in November. Ciattarelli came close to defeating Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy in 2021.
This year, Murphy cannot run for re-election due to term limits. NBC News has not yet projected a winner of the crowded Democratic primary, though Rep. Mikie Sherrill has staked out an early lead with approximately one-third of the votes tallied.
Ciattarelli faced former radio host Bill Spadea, state Sen. Jon Bramnick, former Englewood Cliffs Mayor Mario Kranjac and contractor Justin Barbera in the Republican primary.
Trump hosted a tele-rally as early voting kicked off this month, telling supporters that Ciattarelli is “going to help us with a win this November and send a powerful message to the entire country that New Jersey is turning red.”
Ciattarelli said during a debate last month that Trump endorsed him “because he knows I’m the only person that can unify our party. He endorsed me because of the energy I bring to the campaign. He endorsed me because of the money we’re able to raise to deliver a win. He endorsed me because of the coattails. He endorsed me because I’m the only person who can beat the Democrats in November and the goal is to win.”
But Ciattarelli did have to overcome attacks from Spadea, his chief competitor in the primary, who highlighted Ciattarelli’s past criticisms of the president as proof Ciattarelli was not sufficiently pro-Trump.
Ciattarelli sharply criticized then-candidate Trump in 2015, calling him a “charlatan” and unfit to be president, and he notably did not campaign with Trump when he ran for governor in 2021. Trump knocked Ciattarelli for failing to do so in an appearance on Spadea’s radio show last year.
Trump ultimately backed Ciattarelli about a month before the primary, writing on Truth Social that Ciattarelli is now “100%” MAGA and is best positioned to win in November.
It remains to be seen if Ciattarelli will put some distance between him and the president in the Democratic-leaning state, but Ciattarelli has said he would campaign with Trump this year. Trump significantly narrowed the presidential margins in New Jersey last year, losing the state by 6 points after losing it by 16 points in 2020.
Ciattarelli has already previewed how he might push back against Democrats who try to tie him to Trump, often noting that the next governor must address four crises facing the state on affordability, public safety, education and overdevelopment.
“Last time I checked, this was a race for governor,” Ciattarelli said at a recent campaign stop. “And so what is it that President Trump has to do with those windmills of our Jersey Shore? What does he have to do with the fact that we have the highest property tax in the nation? What does he have to do with the failure of our public school system which just slipped from two to 12 on the national report card? What does he have to do with the overdevelopment of our suburbs?”
“They broke it, they own it,” Ciattarelli said of Democrats in charge of the state government. “And we’re not going to let anybody forget it over the next five months.”
Olympia Sonnier contributed.
