Latest news with #Ciattarelli
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump pushes for Jack Ciattarelli, saying New Jersey 'ready to pop out of blue horror show'
The Brief Trump implored voters in New Jersey's primary for governor to vote for Republican Jack Ciattarelli. "New Jersey is ready to pop out of that blue horror show," the president said. The president announced his endorsement of Ciattarelli last month. NEW JERSEY - President Donald Trump on Monday implored voters in New Jersey's primary for governor to support Republican Jack Ciattarelli when early in-person voting begins Tuesday and said the state was ready for a change after years of Democratic control. What they're saying The president, who has golf clubs around the state and frequently stays at his Bedminster property, announced his endorsement for Ciattarelli last month. On Monday, Trump held a telephone rally for the candidate, a former state lawmaker who transformed from a critic to vocal backer of the president. The phone call lasted about 10 minutes, with the president saying that voters will decide whether New Jersey remains a "high-tax, high-crime sanctuary state." "New Jersey is ready to pop out of that blue horror show and really get in there and vote for somebody that's going to make things happen," the president said. Dig deeper Trump's call for early voting echoed the pitch he made to voters in the 2024 presidential election. Ciattarelli said his first executive order if elected would be to end any sanctuary policies for immigrants in the country illegally. Currently, the state attorney general has directed local law enforcement not to assist federal agents in civil immigration matters. There is no legal definition for sanctuary city policies, but they generally limit cooperation by local law enforcement with federal immigration officers. Ciattarelli also said the attorney general he appoints if he wins won't be bringing lawsuits against the White House. New Jersey's current attorney general has pursued several high-profile challenges to the president's agenda, including a case challenging Trump's order calling for the end of birthright citizenship. Ciattarelli is running against former radio talk host Bill Spadea, state Sen. Jon Bramnick, former Englewood Cliffs Mayor Mario Kranjac and a southern New Jersey contractor named Justin Barbera. What's next Early in-person voting begins Tuesday and goes through Sunday. Primary day is June 10, though voters have been sending mail-in ballots in since late April. Though the primary isn't over, Ciattarelli hinted at what attacks against his eventual Democratic challenger in the general election might be, saying the party's eight years in the governorship and more than two decades of power in the legislature have been a failure. The Democratic field isn't set. There's a six-way contest between Reps. Josh Gottheimer and Mikie Sherrill; Mayors Ras Baraka of Newark and Steven Fulop of Jersey City; former state Senate President Steve Sweeney; and teacher's union president Sean Spiller. New Jersey tilts Democratic in presidential and Senate elections in particular, and the party has a roughly 800,000 voter registration advantage over Republicans. But independents make up a significant bloc as well, and voters have tended to alternate between Democratic and Republican administrations for governor. The Source Information from this article was provided by the Associated Press.
New York Post
a day ago
- Business
- New York Post
Trump tele-stumps for ‘true champion' Jack Ciattarelli ahead of New Jersey gov primary early voting
Early voting in New Jersey's hotly contested gubernatorial primary began Tuesday, hours after President Trump held a tele-rally to boost GOP hopeful Jack Ciattarelli. The president bashed New Jersey as a 'high-tax, high-crime sanctuary state' and hailed Ciattarelli, a former member of the Garden State's General Assembly, as a 'champion' who could turn the state red again. 'New Jersey is ready to pop out of that blue horror show and really get in there and vote for somebody that's going to make things happen,' Trump said during remarks lasting roughly 10 minutes. 'I'm asking you to get out and vote for a true champion for the people of your state – Jack Ciattarelli. He's been a friend of mine, and he's been a real success story,' the president added. Ciattarelli has promised that one of his first executive orders will be to scrap policies that bar state and local authorities from cooperating with federal immigration agents. 3 Jack Ciattarelli is generally seen as the frontrunner in the GOP primary for New Jersey governor. AP 3 President Trump is eager to see New Jersey flip red in November. REUTERS Sparse polling has pegged Ciattarelli as the odds-on favorite in the Republican primary, with conservative radio host Bill Spadea and state Sen. Jon Bramnick polling a distant second and third. 'It was certainly disappointing,' Spadea told Fox News about Trump backing Ciattarelli. 'I mean, we made no bones about this. We absolutely wanted the president's endorsement. Unfortunately, the president endorsed a poll and not a plan.' 'I have been a supporter of President Trump since he came down the escalator [in 2015].' Trump owns several properties in New Jersey and periodically spends weekends at his golf club in Bedminster. 'It's like Make America Great Again,' the president exhorted his audience. 'It's Make New Jersey Great Again.' Off-year elections in New Jersey and Virginia are often seen as key tests of a president's popularity just shy of one year into office and a harbinger of what might come in the midterm elections the following year. Ciattarelli was the Republican gubernatorial nominee in 2021, when he shocked observers by narrowly losing to incumbent Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy by just over three percentage points. 3 Jack Ciattarelli had narrowly lost New Jersey's gubernatorial race in 2021. Getty Images Last November, Trump lost New Jersey to Kamala Harris by just 5.9%, an improvement of 10 percentage points on his margin of defeat by Joe Biden in 2020. Republicans have not won statewide office in New Jersey since Chris Christie was elected to a second term as governor in 2013. On the Democratic side, Rep. Mikie Sherrill is the polling favorite to win the primary, followed in various orders by Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, Rep. Josh Gottheimer, teachers' union president Sean Spiller, and former state Senate President Steve Sweeney. Sherrill, a former Navy pilot and federal prosecutor who flipped a longtime GOP House seat in 2018, has largely vowed to stick with policies pursued by the term-limited Murphy while vowing to protect the state from what she describes as Trump's excesses. There are roughly 800,000 more registered Democrats in New Jersey than Republicans, though independents have significant sway in state politics.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump front-and-center in Republican primary for governor as early voting kicks off
PINE HILL, N.J.– One week to go until primary day in New Jersey, and Republican gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli was getting a shoutout from the most powerful and influential politician in the GOP. "I'm asking you to get out and vote for a true champion for the people of your state – Jack Ciattarelli. He's been a friend of mine, and he's been a real success story," President Donald Trump told supporters as he dialed into a tele-rally on the eve of Tuesday's kickoff of early voting in New Jersey. Trump's praise came two weeks after he endorsed Ciattarelli for the Republican nomination in a primary race that turned into a battle for the president's support. "It's a really big deal," Ciattarelli said in a Monday interview with Fox News Digital after meeting with local GOP politicians and leaders at the Trump National Golf Club-Philadelphia in this South Jersey borough, when asked about the significance of Trump's endorsement. "The president's doing very, very well in New Jersey." New York Gov. Kathy Hochul Facing Democratic Primary Challenge From Her Own Lt. Governor Ciattarelli, a former state lawmaker, is making his third bid for governor. He ran unsuccessfully for the GOP nomination in 2017. Four years later, in 2021, as the Republican nominee, Ciattarelli overperformed and came close to ousting Democratic incumbent Gov. Phil Murphy, losing by just three points. Read On The Fox News App In the showdown to succeed Murphy, who is term-limited and prevented from running for re-election, polls suggest that Ciattarelli is the front-runner in a Republican nomination race that includes two other prominent candidates – former businessman and popular conservative talk radio host Bill Spadea and state Sen. Jon Bramnick, a lawyer who served for a decade as state Assembly GOP leader. New Jersey Primary An Early Test Of Trump's Second Administration And Ciattarelli and Spadea spent months trading fire over which of them was a bigger Trump supporter. "It was certainly disappointing," Spadea said of Trump's endorsement of Ciattarelli. "I mean, we made no bones about this. We absolutely wanted the president's endorsement. Unfortunately, the president endorsed a poll and not a plan." And in a Fox News Digital interview, Spadea emphasized that "I have been a supporter of President Trump since he came down the escalator," as he referenced Trump's announcement in 2015 of his first presidential campaign. "There is no question that I am the common-sense conservative. I am the actual Republican in this primary," Spadea claimed. And Spadea questioned Ciattarelli's support for Trump, claiming that his rival "has disrespected him for the better part of the last eight years…We thought that that endorsement would have been better served with me." Four years ago, after he won the GOP gubernatorial nomination, Ciattarelli, when asked if he was seeking the then-former president's endorsement, told Fox News Digital "there's only one endorsement I seek, and that's the endorsement of the voters of New Jersey. That's the only one that matters." Fast forward to 2025, and Ciattarelli emphasized that "people really appreciate what he [Trump] is doing for New Jerseyans. He's put a temporary hold on the wind farms off the Jersey Shore. He's beating up on the New York Democrats over congestion pricing. He supports a quadrupling of the SALT [state and local tax] deduction on our federal tax returns. Those are big deals to New Jersey, and that's why he's got so much great support here. And I'm honored to have his endorsement." Republican Governors Chair, Pointing To Campaign Battles Ahead, Touts 'Our Policies Are Better' While he lost out on Trump's endorsement, Spadea said there's been a silver lining. "Our supporters are galvanized. Matter of fact, the Tuesday and Wednesday after Trump endorsed Jack, we had a surge, our two best days ever in low-dollar fundraising," Spadea said. "So it actually has had the opposite effect, our low-dollar surge, our volunteer surge, we're now knocking on more than 3,000 doors a week, and we're getting an unbelievable response from the grassroots." Spadea said that "almost every Trump supporter that we've talked to face-to-face on the ground thinks that Donald Trump made a huge mistake" in endorsing Ciattarelli. And Spadea, who was interviewed in downtown Princeton, New Jersey, added that "Trump supporters believe in common-sense policies, populism, patriotism. It's not about being told who to vote for." Asked why Trump endorsed him rather than Spadea, Ciattarelli said that "the president wants to win. He knows that I provide the best opportunity to win in November." "He knows we're going to raise the necessary money. We've raised more money than the other five Republican gubernatorial candidates combined," added Ciattarelli, a certified public accountant who started a medical publishing company before getting into politics. The fundraising advantage has allowed Ciattarelli to dominate the ad wars, although Spadea said that "in the last couple of weeks we've actually outspent my opponent on the air" and predicted that "we're going to win." And Spadea, pointing to his media career, touted that "I built the largest audience in the state, a third Democrat, a third independent, a third Republican. So my appeal is not just that conservative base in the Republican Party. I'm the only candidate running for the Republican nomination that can pull in Democrats and independents." While the Democrats are also experiencing a competitive primary for governor, the Democratic Governors Association has long described the 2025 Republican showdown as a "MAGA battle" and argued that there's "extremism in the GOP primary." New Jersey has long been a blue-leaning state, but Republicans have had success in gubernatorial elections. "It's not a blue state when it comes to Governor races, Republicans have won six of the last 11. That's better than 50%," Ciattarelli said. And Trump, who spends summer weekends at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, held a very large rally last year in Wildwood, N.J. And he improved from a 16-point loss in the state in the 2020 election to a 6-point deficit last November. "The president's doing very, very well in New Jersey. He performed well here last election day," Ciattarelli said. And Ciattarelli, looking ahead to the general election campaign, said he's "really looking forward" to Trump's "active participation…I think New Jerseyans are anxious to have him on the campaign trail with me and help deliver a win for us in November." New Jersey's governor's race will likely grab plenty of national attention as Election Day nears, as it's one of just two states, along with Virginia, to hold gubernatorial contests in the year after a presidential election. Ciattarelli, pointing to his ballot box performance against Murphy four years ago, said that "we were the spark that lit the fuse in '21 with that very close race. The president before performed well here last November." "The country is watching and I think we're gonna deliver a very loud and clear message that New Jersey's going Republican this year," he article source: Trump front-and-center in Republican primary for governor as early voting kicks off
Miami Herald
a day ago
- Business
- Miami Herald
Donald Trump Predicts GOP Comeback in Deep-Blue State
President Donald Trump expressed confidence in a Republican resurgence in New Jersey during a recent rally, claiming that the deep-blue state is ripe for political change. "New Jersey is ready to pop out of that blue horror show and really get in there and vote for somebody that's going to make things happen," the president said during a telephone rally for Republican gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli on Monday. The Republicans have not won a gubernatorial election in New Jersey since 2013. The last time the GOP won a presidential election in New Jersey was 1988. Trump's comments reflect his ongoing effort to expand Republican influence in areas long considered out of reach for the GOP. While New Jersey remains reliably blue in statewide and national elections, Republicans have seen increasing success in the state in recent years, with Trump increasing his vote share by 10 points in 2024. Trump's remarks appear to be an attempt to capitalize on that momentum, testing how far his political brand can stretch in the post-2024 landscape. Trump made the prediction during a Monday evening telephone rally in support of Jack Ciattarelli—a former state lawmaker who once criticized Trump but is now one of his most vocal allies. In the 10-minute call, Trump warned voters that under continued Democratic leadership, New Jersey risks remaining a "high-tax, high-crime sanctuary state." Ciattarelli, positioning himself as the candidate to lead a GOP resurgence, outlined a hard-line conservative agenda. He pledged that his first executive order as governor would be to end any sanctuary policies protecting immigrants lacking permanent legal status. Currently, the state attorney general has directed local law enforcement agencies not to assist federal authorities in civil immigration enforcement. While there is no formal legal definition of sanctuary policies, the term generally refers to local jurisdictions limiting cooperation with federal immigration officers. Ciattarelli also vowed that the attorney general he appoints, if elected, would refrain from filing lawsuits against the White House. This marks a stark contrast to New Jersey's current attorney general, who has mounted several high-profile legal challenges to Trump-era policies—including a lawsuit opposing Trump's attempt to eliminate birthright citizenship. Ciattarelli faces several challengers in the Republican primary: former radio host Bill Spadea, state Senator Jon Bramnick, former Englewood Cliffs Mayor Mario Kranjac and South Jersey contractor Justin Barbera. Although the GOP primary is still underway, Ciattarelli has begun previewing his likely message against a Democratic opponent in the general election, saying the party's eight years in the governor's office and more than two decades of legislative control have been a failure. The Democratic field remains unsettled, with six candidates vying for the nomination: U.S. Representatives Josh Gottheimer and Mikie Sherrill; Newark Mayor Ras Baraka; Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop; former state Senate President Steve Sweeney; and Sean Spiller, president of the New Jersey Education Association. Despite New Jersey's strong Democratic leanings—particularly in presidential and Senate elections—the state has a history of swinging between parties in gubernatorial races. Democrats currently hold a voter registration edge of roughly 800,000 over Republicans, but independents make up a crucial share of the electorate. Recent polling suggests Trump maintains an unexpectedly strong foothold in the Garden State. According to an Emerson College/PIX11/The Hill poll, conducted between May 11-13 among 1,000 New Jersey registered voters, Trump is more popular than Democratic Governor Phil Murphy, who holds a 40 percent job approval rating, with 45 percent of voters disapproving and 15 percent neutral. In the poll, Trump had a 47 percent approval rating, up from 38 percent in July 2020. Governor Murphy's dealings with Trump have combined sharp criticism with occasional cooperation. He has condemned the president's 2025 push to dismantle the Department of Education as "unconscionable and unconstitutional" and taken action to shield abortion rights in New Jersey. Yet he has also acknowledged shared interests, including working with Trump to oppose New York City's congestion pricing plan, which would have impacted New Jersey commuters. The Emerson poll also highlighted a broader political divide among voters. While Democrats overwhelmingly support a governor who would push back against Trump, most independents (60 percent and Republicans (90 percent)—and 53 percent of voters overall—prefer a leader who would cooperate with the Trump administration. That desire for collaboration among swing voters may help explain Trump's enduring influence in a state long considered out of reach for Republicans. Early in-person voting begins for New Jersey's gubernatorial election on Tuesday and will last until Sunday. Primary elections will take place on June 10. Related Articles Full List of Rite Aid Stores Closing in JuneBeach Town Marred by 73 Arrests, Stabbings Amid Memorial Day Weekend ChaosFormer GOP Lawmakers Blast 'Outrageous' Charges Against LaMonica McIverNancy Mace Seeks to Expel Democrat Charged Over Newark ICE Scuffle 2025 NEWSWEEK DIGITAL LLC.
Fox News
2 days ago
- Business
- Fox News
Trump front-and-center in Republican primary for governor as early voting kicks off
PINE HILL, NEW JERSEY – One week to go until primary day in New Jersey, and Republican gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli was getting a shoutout from the most powerful and influential politician in the GOP. "I'm asking you to get out and vote for a true champion for the people of your state – Jack Ciattarelli. He's been a friend of mine, and he's been a real success story," President Donald Trump told supporters as he dialed into a tele-rally on the eve of Tuesday's kickoff of early voting in New Jersey. Trump's praise came two weeks after he endorsed Ciattarelli for the Republican nomination in a primary race that turned into a battle for the president's support. "It's a really big deal," Ciattarelli said in a Monday interview with Fox News Digital after meeting with local GOP politicians and leaders at the Trump National Golf Club-Philadelphia in this South Jersey borough, when asked about the significance of Trump's endorsement. "The president's doing very, very well in New Jersey." Ciattarelli, a former state lawmaker, is making his third bid for governor. He ran unsuccessfully for the GOP nomination in 2017. Four years later, in 2021, as the Republican nominee, Ciattarelli overperformed and came close to ousting Democratic incumbent Gov. Phil Murphy, losing by just three points. In the showdown to succeed Murphy, who is term-limited and prevented from running for re-election, polls suggest that Ciattarelli is the front-runner in a Republican nomination race that includes two other prominent candidates – former businessman and popular conservative talk radio host Bill Spadea and state Sen. Jon Bramnick, a lawyer who served for a decade as state Assembly GOP leader. And Ciattarelli and Spadea spent months trading fire over which of them was a bigger Trump supporter. "It was certainly disappointing," Spadea said of Trump's endorsement of Ciattarelli. "I mean, we made no bones about this. We absolutely wanted the President's endorsement. Unfortunately, the President endorsed a poll and not a plan." And in a Fox News Digital interview, Spadea emphasized that "I have been a supporter of President Trump since he came down the escalator," as he referenced Trump's announcement in 2015 of his first presidential campaign. "There is no question that I am the common-sense conservative. I am the actual Republican in this primary," Spadea claimed. And Spadea questioned Ciattarelli's support for Trump, claiming that his rival "has disrespected him for the better part of the last eight years…We thought that that endorsement would have been better served with me." Four years ago, after he won the GOP gubernatorial nomination, Ciattarelli, when asked if he was seeking the then-former president's endorsement, told Fox News Digital "there's only one endorsement I seek, and that's the endorsement of the voters of New Jersey. That's the only one that matters." Fast forward to 2025, and Ciattarelli emphasized that "people really appreciate what he [Trump] is doing for New Jerseyans. He's put a temporary hold on the wind farms off the Jersey Shore. He's beating up on the New York Democrats over congestion pricing. He supports a quadrupling of the SALT [state and local tax] deduction on our federal tax returns. Those are big deals to New Jersey, and that's why he's got so much great support here. And I'm honored to have his endorsement." While he lost out on Trump's endorsement, Spadea said there's been a silver lining. "Our supporters are galvanized. Matter of fact, the Tuesday and Wednesday after Trump endorsed Jack, we had a surge, our two best days ever in low-dollar fundraising," Spadea said. "So it actually has had the opposite effect, our low-dollar surge, our volunteer surge, we're now knocking on more than 3,000 doors a week, and we're getting an unbelievable response from the grassroots." Spadea said that "almost every Trump supporter that we've talked to face-to-face on the ground thinks that Donald Trump made a huge mistake" in endorsing Ciattarelli. And Spadea, who was interviewed in downtown Princeton, New Jersey, added that "Trump supporters believe in common-sense policies, populism, patriotism. It's not about being told who to vote for." Asked why Trump endorsed him rather than Spadea, Ciattarelli said that "the president wants to win. He knows that I provide the best opportunity to win in November." "He knows we're going to raise the necessary money. We've raised more money than the other five Republican gubernatorial candidates combined," added Ciattarelli, a certified public accountant who started a medical publishing company before getting into politics. The fundraising advantage has allowed Ciattarelli to dominate the ad wars, although Spadea said that "in the last couple of weeks we've actually outspent my opponent on the air" and predicted that "we're going to win." And Spadea, pointing to his media career, touted that "I built the largest audience in the state, a third Democrat, a third independent, a third Republican. So my appeal is not just that conservative base in the Republican Party. I'm the only candidate running for the Republican nomination that can pull in Democrats and independents." New Jersey has long been a blue-leaning state, but Republicans have had success in gubernatorial elections. "It's not a blue state when it comes to Governor races, Republicans have won six of the last 11. That's better than 50%," Ciattarelli said. And Trump, who spends summer weekends at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, held a very large rally last year in Wildwood, N.J. And he improved from a 16-point loss in the state in the 2020 election to a 6-point deficit last November. "The president's doing very, very well in New Jersey. He performed well here last election day," Ciattarelli said. And Ciattarelli, looking ahead to the general election campaign, said he's "really looking forward" to Trump's "active participation…I think New Jerseyans are anxious to have him on the campaign trail with me and help deliver a win for us in November." New Jersey's governor's race will likely grab plenty of national attention as Election Day nears, as it's one of just two states, along with Virginia, to hold gubernatorial contests in the year after a presidential election. Ciattarelli, pointing to his ballot box performance against Murphy four years ago, said that "we were the spark that lit the fuse in '21 with that very close race. The president before performed well here last November." "The country is watching and I think we're gonna deliver a very loud and clear message that New Jersey's going Republican this year," he predicted.
