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BAYONNE, N.J. – With fewer than three weeks until Election Day in New Jersey, Republican gubernatorial nominee Jack Ciattarelli says he’s looking forward to a helping hand from President Donald Trump.
“There’s obviously a whole lot of people across the state of New Jersey that are pleased with the job the president’s doing,” Ciattarelli said Wednesday in an exclusive Fox News Digital interview.
Ciattarelli’s comments came as a new public poll indicated the two-time GOP nominee in the Garden State narrowing the gap with Rep. Mikie Sherrill, his Democratic Party rival for governor in the race to succeed term-limited Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy.
With the clock ticking towards Election Day, multiple sources confirmed to Fox News that Trump will hold tele-rallies with Ciattarelli ahead of Election Day.
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Trump’s teaming up with Ciattarelli will likely help energize the Republican Party’s MAGA base, many of whom are low propensity voters who often skip casting ballots in non-presidential election years.
And in what’s expected to be a low-turnout election, Trump’s help could potentially be crucial to Ciattarelli, who’s making his third bid for governor and who four years ago came close to upsetting Murphy.
New Jersey and Virginia are the only two states to hold gubernatorial showdowns in the year after a presidential election, and the contests traditionally grab outsized attention and are viewed as political barometers ahead of the following year’s midterm elections.
And this year, they’re being viewed to a large degree as ballot box referendums on Trump’s unprecedented second-term agenda.
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Pointing to the president’s push to temporarily halt wind farms off the Jersey Shore, his vow to kill New York’s congestion pricing, tax cuts, deductions, and credits in the GOP’s massive domestic policy measure, and his efforts to secure the nation’s southern border, Ciattarelli said that people “are very pleased with the President, what he’s done for New Jersey.”
Trump endorsed Ciattarelli earlier this year, in the GOP gubernatorial nomination race. And the president headlined a tele-rally for Ciattarelli ahead of the June primary.
The new survey, from Quinnipiac University, indicated Sherrill, a four-term federal lawmaker, Naval Academy graduate who flew helicopters during her military career, and a former federal prosecutor, at 50% support among likely voters.
Ciattarelli, a former state lawmaker and a certified public accountant who started a medical publishing company before getting into politics and winning election as a state lawmaker, stood at 44% support in the survey, which was conducted Oct. 9-13.
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Sherrill’s 6-point advantage in the new poll was down from an 8-point lead in the Quinnipiac’s September survey.
The poll indicated Ciattarelli with a slight lead in enthusiasm among voters, but that Sherrill was viewed more favorably.
While Trump isn’t on the ballot, he’s loomed large over the New Jersey gubernatorial election.
At last week’s second and final debate, Sherrill charged that her GOP rival had “shown zero signs of standing up to this president. In fact, the president himself called Jack 100% MAGA, and he’s shown every sign of being that.”
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Asked whether he considered himself part of the MAGA movement, Ciattarelli said he was “part of a New Jersey movement.”
When asked to grade the president’s performance so far during his second term, Ciattarelli said, “I’d certainly give the president an A. I think he’s right about everything that he’s doing.”
“I think that tells us all we need to know about who Jack Ciattarelli’s supporting. I give him an F right now,” Sherrill responded, as she pointed to New Jersey’s high cost of living.
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While Democrats have long dominated federal and state legislative elections in blue-leaning New Jersey, Republicans are very competitive in gubernatorial contests, winning five out of the past ten elections.
And Trump made major gains in New Jersey in last year’s presidential election, losing the state by only 6 percentage points, a major improvement over his 16-point deficit four years earlier.
Ciattarelli said in a Fox News Digital interview last month that he was “really pleased that the White House has offered to help us in any way that we see fit,” and that he and his campaign were “in constant communication with the White House about different ways they can help.”
And while there’s no indication, as of now, that Trump will join Ciattarelli in person in New Jersey, campaign strategist Chris Russell told Fox News, “we’re appreciative of all the help we’ve received from the president and his team so far, and grateful for any support they provide down the stretch.”
But the Democratic National Committee (DNC), in a release after word of the Trump tele-rally was first reported by Axios, claimed that Ciattarelli was “desperate.”
“It’s clear that this election comes down to one major truth: Jack is 100% for Trump, while Mikie Sherrill is 100% for New Jersey,” DNC Deputy Communications Director Abhi Rahman argued in a statement.
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