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FORT LEE, N.J – He isn’t on the poll, however President Donald Trump and his sweeping and controversial second-term agenda weigh closely on this yr’s poll field battle for governor of New Jersey.
And Republican gubernatorial nominee Jack Ciattarelli, who enjoys the president’s assist, says Democratic nominee Rep. Mikie Sherrill is making an attempt to make use of Trump as a cudgel.
“Pay attention, when you get a flat tire on the best way residence from work right this moment, she’s going responsible it on the president. There is not something she does not blame on the president,” Ciattarelli argued, as he sat this week for an interview with Fox Information Digital.
New Jersey is only one of two states, together with Virginia, that maintain statewide elections for governor this November. And the contests, which historically seize outsized nationwide consideration, are considered as essential early checks of the president’s recognition and agenda, and key barometers forward of subsequent yr’s midterm showdowns for the Home and Senate.
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Republican candidate Jack Ciattarelli, left, shakes fingers with Democratic candidate for governor Mikie Sherrill, proper, earlier than a debate on Sunday, Sept. 21, 2025, in Lawrenceville, N.J. (AP Photograph/Noah Okay. Murray)
“As Trump has inflicted all this harm on our nation, Republican politicians like Jack Ciattarelli have cheered him on each step of the best way,” Sherrill emphasised in a current fundraising electronic mail to supporters.
On Sunday, on the first debate between the gubernatorial nominees, Sherrill pointed to Ciattarelli and charged that “he’ll do no matter Trump tells him to do.”
And in her closing assertion, she argued that “Jack’s going to go in lockstep with Washington as he drives — as Trump drives — up your vitality prices.”
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Interviewed a few days later, as he met with voters of Korean heritage at a restaurant in Fort Lee, New Jersey, Ciattarelli stated Trump is “definitely one thing that each one my opponent desires to speak about.”
And Ciattarelli, who got here near upsetting Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy 4 years in the past, discounted discuss that Trump is the dominant problem within the race.
Jack Ciattarelli, the Republican nominee for governor in New Jersey, takes questions from voters of Korean heritage, at a restaurant in Fort Lee, N.J. on Sept. 24, 2025. (Paul Steinhauser – Fox Information)
“We have got a property tax disaster within the state. The president does not have something to do with that. We have got a public security disaster within the state. Nonviolent crime is thru the roof. He does not have something to do with that. We have got a public training disaster, an overdevelopment disaster. Have a look at your month-to-month electrical invoice. The President does not have something to do with these issues,” Ciattarelli insisted.
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Ciattarelli, as he cruised to a second straight GOP gubernatorial main victory in June due to the president’s endorsement, stated that Sherrill would nationalize the race.
“If this marketing campaign had been a consuming recreation, and also you took a shot each time Mikie Sherrill says Trump, you are going to be drunk off your a– each day…between now and Nov. 4,” Ciattarelli stated on the time.
Republican Jack Ciattarelli celebrates with supporters after profitable the New Jersey GOP gubernatorial nomination, on main evening, June 10, 2025, in Holmdel, N.J. (Paul Steinhauser/Fox Information)
Whereas New Jersey has lengthy been a blue state in presidential elections, Trump improved from a 16-point loss within the state within the 2020 election to a 6-point deficit final November.
And Ciattarelli is not shying away from Trump’s assist. He stated final month at an occasion on the Trump Nationwide Golf Membership in Bedminster, New Jersey that “we’ll look to deploy the president, the White Home, in each approach that we will.”
Whereas the president praised Ciattarelli on Thursday in a social media submit, saying, “He will probably be a GREAT Governor,” Trump has but to affix his celebration’s nominee on the marketing campaign path.
Requested if a joint marketing campaign path look with Trump will happen earlier than Election Day, Ciattarelli stated he is “actually happy that the White Home has provided to assist us in any approach that we see match.”
However he added, “I’ve bought to earn this factor. I have been doing that for the previous 15 months. I am gonna go on the market and do it for the final six weeks.”
Whereas Sherrill has persistently aimed to tie Ciattarelli to Trump, she’s additionally been shining a marketing campaign highlight on affordability, as inflation considerations persist.
Democratic gubernatorial nominee Rep. Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey responds to questions in the course of the first normal election debate with Republican opponent Jack Ciattarelli, on Sept. 21, 2025, in Lawrenceville, N.J. (AP Photograph/Noah Okay. Murray)
“I’m laser-focused on driving down prices for households like yours. I’m going to declare a state of emergency on day one, freezing your charge hikes. I’m going to demand transparency and accountability from our authorities to save lots of you money and time,” she stated in the beginning of the primary debate.
Ciattarelli countered that the Democrats are responsible, as he works time beyond regulation making an attempt to hyperlink Sherrill to Murphy, who’s term-limited, and the Democrats who’ve lengthy managed the state legislature in Trenton.
“They’ve managed the legislature for 25 years. They’ve had the governorship the previous eight years,” Ciattarelli informed Fox Information as he pointed to the Democrats. “And look the place we’re right this moment. The very best property tax within the nation. Your month-to-month electrical invoice goes by means of the roof. We bought non-violent crime that is spiking.”
“It has been a failure, and he or she’s a continuation of these insurance policies,” he argued.
Republican gubernatorial nominee Jack Ciattarelli of New Jersey sits for a Fox Information Digital interview, on Sept. 24, 2025 in Fort Lee, N.J. (Paul Steinhauser – Fox Information)
The most recent public opinion polls counsel a detailed contest between Sherrill, a U.S. Naval Academy graduate who later served as a helicopter pilot, and a former federal prosecutor, earlier than first profitable election to Congress in 2018, and Ciattarelli, a former state lawmaker and an authorized public accountant who began a medical publishing firm earlier than stepping into politics.
Ciattarelli stated he’ll proceed what he describes as a relentless marketing campaign path schedule.
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“Every day we contact 4 counties, we exit and speak about how it’s we’re gonna repair New Jersey, and also you gotta press the flesh,” he stated.
And he claimed that “my opponent hasn’t accomplished that, and he or she’s ducking appearances left and proper.”
