BRIDGEWATER TOWNSHIP, New Jersey — Despite the blustering winds, overcast sky, and leaves leaping into people’s faces, energy outside the Bridgewater Municipal Court in New Jersey was high as supporters waited eagerly for Republican Jack Ciattarelli to arrive on Friday ahead of the state’s competitive gubernatorial election.
Ciattarelli was greeted by loud cheers, red “Make America Great Again” and “USA” ballcaps, and “Ciattarelli for Governor” signs in the Garden State township of Bridgewater, where he cast his early vote for himself and the GOP ticket.
“As I always like to say, what do championship teams do? We got four days left, let’s finish strong, let’s win, and let’s change the direction of Jersey,” Ciattarelli told his supporters.
“We got two more days of early voting,” he added, quipping that “if you come across anyone you know that’s not voting for me, tell them that Election Day’s Wednesday, Nov. 5.”
Ciattarelli is facing Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ) in the gubernatorial race, the most competitive of the two taking place on Tuesday. Though Sherrill has held a sizable lead in the historically blue state since she and Ciattarelli won their respective primaries in June, the state has begun to trend to the right and has a track record of periodically electing Republicans.
An Emerson College poll this week found that Ciattarelli and Sherrill are in a statistical dead heat, giving Sherrill a RealClearPolitics average of a 3.6-point lead. Ciattarelli said he was not shocked by the survey’s results, which put Sherrill at 49% of the vote to his 48%.
“I get up and down the state every day of the week, and it’s confirming what I feel that’s out there,” Ciattarelli said outside the early voting location. “But we’re not done. We’ll finish strong over these last four days, and I really do believe that we’re going to deliver a win for New Jersey on Tuesday.”
Ciattarelli hopeful a changing ‘landscape’ will push him to victory
Ciattarelli is looking for a comeback this year, hoping the third time’s the charm.
He lost to former Gov. Chris Christie’s lieutenant governor, Kim Guadagno, in the 2017 GOP primary race. Then, in 2021, Gov. Phil Murphy (D-NJ) defeated Ciattarelli by roughly 3 percentage points — becoming the first Democratic governor reelected since 1977.
He said the landscape of New Jersey has changed, which is why he is more confident in a 2025 win than he was in 2021.
“The issues I was talking about in ‘21 were percolating. Today they’re at a complete boil,” he said, pointing to the high cost of living and affordability crises the Garden State is facing.
He added that he also has the benefit of not facing Murphy, who was seeking reelection and could rely on his incumbent status.
“I’m not competing with a pandemic this time around,” he added. “It wasn’t easy campaigning for governor during a shelter-in-place. I’m not going up against an incumbent. Murphy did leverage the power of incumbency. [Sherrill’s] not an incumbent.”
But the biggest contrast between the two races is that there’s “a lot less indifference this time around.”
“Back in ‘21, I had too many people inside New Jersey, including Republicans, and people around the country didn’t think I had a shot in hell,” he said. “They now know differently because of our performance in ‘21.”
President Donald Trump, then a former president, did not endorse Ciattarelli in 2021. The New Jersey Republican was a Trump critic and historically more centrist. This year, however, Ciattarelli coalesced the MAGA vote and earned himself a Trump endorsement.
The president amped up his support of Ciattarelli in the final weeks of the campaign by holding telerallies for the GOP candidate. Close Trump allies also threw millions of dollars into a pro-Ciattarelli super PAC to help bolster his campaign.
Ciattarelli praised the reception he has gotten from Latino voters as “overwhelmingly positive” across the state — a voting bloc that makes up nearly 22% of New Jersey’s population. The minority group historically has supported Democrats, but they shifted significantly to Trump last year.
Trump only lost New Jersey to then-Vice President Kamala Harris by 6 points. Kenny Gonzalez, a Hispanic spokesperson for the New Jersey Republican State Committee, told CNN that the margin was aided by a sizable shift in minority support.
“President Trump could not have done as well as he did without getting Democrat Hispanics to vote for him, and Jack Ciattarelli is not going to win this election without getting Democrat Hispanics to vote for him,” Gonzalez said. “So many Democrats are leaving the Democrat Party simply because the Democrat Party has gone too far left.”
A Fox News poll conducted earlier in October found that a slim majority, 53%, of Hispanic registered voters would cast a ballot for Sherrill. With margins of error, Ciattarelli could see an opportunity to pick up centrist or Democratic-leaning minority voters in the days leading up to Tuesday’s election.
“We only have ‘21 to compare it to,” Ciattarelli said. “I really thought I was going to win that race. You know how close we came, and this one feels very different. Energy up and down the state is electric.”
Meanwhile, Sherrill is holding a rally with Barack Obama on Saturday evening. The former president has made New Jersey a fresh test of his endorsement power as Democrats seek to keep the GOP from gaining a foothold in the Garden State. Sherrill also recently held events with former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and several congressional Democrats who are stumping for her in the bellwether race.
But Ciattarelli is not fazed.
“This is what I refer to the choreography of campaigns, but at the end of the day, I really believe, especially in New Jersey, the candidate has to win the race,” Ciattarelli said, adding that a good candidate has to get out, shake people’s hands, and talk to them every day.
“I think we’ve done that a hell of a lot better than my opponent.”
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Trump supporters throw weight behind Ciattarelli
Ciattarelli’s supporters who met him in Bridgewater are no strangers to high-energy situations. A group of them are frequent regulars at “Trump’s Corner,” a spot in Bedminster, New Jersey, at the corner of Lambington Road and I-206.
There, they wear their Trump and American flag T-shirts, wave flags supporting the president, and try to provide a sense of community for conservatives in the area.
Debbie Allen, 61, who is a member of Trump’s Corner, said it was important for her to come out to Bridgewater Municipal Court because “I love my country.”
She said she admires that Ciattarelli is “born and bred” in New Jersey. Though Sherrill has a long-standing political career in New Jersey, she was born in Virginia — a fact that put off Allen.
“That proves a lot, [Ciattarelli] knows our state, and that’s important, because I’m a Jersey girl,” Allen said.
She has four grown children and a grandson, and though they do not live in New Jersey, the election for her is critical because “it’s the future for them.”
For Donna Whitehead, also a Trump’s Corner member, the election for her is a lesser of two evils.
“My main thing, to be perfectly honest, is it’s kind of like when Trump was running against Hillary [Clinton],” Whitehead said. “I didn’t even like Trump, but I liked Hillary even less, so I only voted for Trump because I hated Hillary. And that’s what this is now. I absolutely don’t like [Sherrill], so that’s why I’m voting for [Ciattarelli].”
“So [Ciattarelli] better freaking perform,” Whitehead added, noting that “all of my eggs are in this basket. “If he don’t, he’s gonna have his feet in the fire, that’s all I got to say.”
Dawn Douglas, a community supporter and traditional Republican voter, said taxes are her top concern, and she thinks Ciattarelli’s personality is more approachable than Sherrill’s.
“Jack’s a very people person,” Douglas said. “His personality and working with the people, I think, would be a better fit [for governor]. More personal. … I don’t see that with her.”
Ron Cerenzio, of Bridgewater, said he is a “fiscal conservative” who has voted both Democratic and Republican over the years. But lately, he has aligned more with the GOP — particularly as he has seen the cost of living in New Jersey grow with no real change from the Murphy administration, in his opinion.
“I have the perspective of a newly retired person, I know how hard it’s been for retired people and why people leave the state,” because the cost of living is too high, he said. “It’s challenging to live in this state under the current economic status.”
Ciattarelli, he said, is the best choice because he has “got a detailed plan as to what he’s going to do to fix it.”
“Mikie, they throw questions at her and she gives these, like, generic responses,” Cerenzio said. “But she doesn’t articulate a specific plan. You talk to Jack about energy, he’s got specific details, and if you talk to him about property taxes, he has specific details. I don’t get any of that from her.”
Both Whitehead and Terry Beck, who helped lead efforts on the recall campaign for Murphy in 2020 and is the founder and organizer of Trump’s Corner since 2018, said they liked Ciattarelli because of his similarities to Trump.
“They’re both sincere,” Beck said. “When you assess people, you can tell the realness of a person and the fairness.”
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Leaving to cheers and praise of him being a community-first candidate, Ciattarelli had a message for voters.
“Don’t wait til Tuesday,” Ciattarelli said. “Anything can happen. Family emergency, not feeling well, something at work. Get out there and vote. This is really convenient and secure.”