Trump jumps into New Jersey race as GOP chases rare flip of governor’s seat

With just two weeks until Election Day and the latest polls suggesting the Republican nominee Jack Ciattarelli narrowing the gap with Democratic rival Rep. Mikee Sherrill in New Jersey’s crucial race for governor, President Donald Trump is stepping in to push his GOP ally over the finish line.

Trump, taking to social media, touted that Ciattarelli “is doing very well in the Polls” and urged his supporters in the Garden State to “VOTE FOR JACK CIATTARELLI — HE WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN!”

Trump has good reason to be optimistic that Ciattarelli, who’s making his third straight run for Garden State governor and who nearly upset Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy four years ago, could pull off victory in blue-leaning New Jersey.

In a state where registered Democrats still outnumber Republicans despite a GOP surge in registration this decade, three public opinion polls released last week — from Fox News, Quinnipiac University and Fairleigh Dickinson University — indicated Ciattarelli narrowing the gap with Democratic gubernatorial nominee Rep. Mikie Sherrill in the race to succeed the term-limited Murphy.

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“The energy across the state is electric. The reception in minority communities has been great, and on being endorsed by prominent Democrats, that tells you all you need to know in terms of the people of New Jersey wanting change. And that’s what this election is all about. Change,” Jack Ciattarelli said this past weekend in an interview on “Fox News Sunday.”

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.

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And this year, they’re being viewed, in part, as ballot-box referendums on Trump’s unprecedented and explosive second-term agenda.

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 10 elections.

And Trump made major gains in New Jersey in last year’s presidential election, losing the state by only six percentage points, a vast improvement over his 16-point deficit four years earlier.

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While it’s still not clear if Trump will physically hit the campaign trail in New Jersey sometime during the next two weeks, Fox News confirmed that the president will hold a tele-rally with Ciattarelli ahead of Election Day.

Last week, Ciattarelli was joined at a jam-packed diner stop in Saddle Brook, New Jersey, by Vivek Ramaswamy, the MAGA rock star who is running for governor next year in his home state of Ohio. 

And this week another well-known Republican politician in MAGA world is headed to New Jersey. Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida, a top House ally of the president who has Trump’s backing as he runs next year for Florida governor, will team up with Ciattarelli on Wednesday.

The stops by the high-profile surrogates and Trump’s tele-rally may help Ciattarelli energize MAGA supporters, many of whom are low propensity voters who often skip casting ballots in non-presidential election years.

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Sherrill, a Naval Academy graduate who flew helicopters during her military service and who was first elected to Congress in 2018, is getting plenty of company on the campaign trail. This past weekend she was joined by two of the biggest names in the party — Govs. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan and Wes Moore of Maryland — who are considered potential 2028 White House contenders.

And Sherrill’s campaign announced on Tuesday the most popular Democrat in the country — former President Barack Obama — will headline a rally with her in Newark, N.J. on Nov. 1, the final weekend before Election Day.

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But Ciattarelli’s campaign claimed that Obama’s upcoming appearance on the New Jersey campaign trail is a sign of weakness for the Democrats.

“National and New Jersey Democrats are in full-blown panic. At this point, we expect them to import anyone they think can excite Democrats because Mikie Sherrill excites no one,” Ciattarelli campaign chief strategist Chris Russell argued in a statement to Fox News Digital.

Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chair Ken Martin, commenting on why Republicans feel bullish about the New Jersey showdown, raised concerns.

“New Jersey is the best place, probably, for Donald Trump to actually stop the Democratic momentum — or at least minimize the Democratic momentum that we’ve seen throughout this year,” Martin said in a recent Politico interview. 

But the DNC announced on Tuesday that it’s upping the ante, infusing more money into the New Jersey Democratic Coordinated Campaign, on top of the $3 million it’s already dished out in the Garden State.

“This November will set the tone for years to come, and it’s our moment to show Donald Trump and the Republicans that their time in power is coming to an end,” Martin emphasized.

New Jersey traditionally elects a governor from the party out of power in the White House, which this year would favor the Democrats.

But Garden State voters haven’t elected a governor from the same party in three straight elections in over a half century, which would favor the Republicans.

One of those political trends will be derailed in two weeks.