Jack Ciattarelli, a Republican endorsed last month by President Trump, easily won his party’s nomination on Tuesday to run for governor of New Jersey in November.
With about 20 percent of the estimated vote reported, Mr. Ciattarelli, a former state assemblyman competing for governor for the third time, beat his two main opponents, State Senator Jon M. Bramnick and Bill Spadea, a conservative radio host, by a convincing margin, according to The Associated Press.
Mr. Ciattarelli, 63, will now face the winner of a Democratic primary that remained too close to call early Tuesday evening.
Mr. Ciattarelli had been considered the front-runner for months, leading in most polls and in the race for campaign cash. Mr. Trump’s endorsement last month emphasized his goal of flipping New Jersey red after eight years of Democratic control.
After two previous campaigns for governor, Mr. Ciattarelli is a familiar name to many voters. He came within three percentage points in 2021 of unseating Gov. Philip D. Murphy, a Democrat. He did not concede defeat until 10 days after the polls closed — at a news conference where he also announced that he would try again in 2025.
Mr. Ciattarelli, a former accountant, has been running ever since.
His embrace of Mr. Trump and his far-right positions represents a departure from his political career in Trenton, where he was known as a moderate during the seven years he served in the Assembly from the 16th Legislative District, in central New Jersey.
Ten years ago, as he was preparing to run his first race for governor, Mr. Ciattarelli called Mr. Trump a charlatan unfit to be president. In the 2021 race, he distanced himself from Mr. Trump, who a year earlier had lost the presidential election to Joseph R. Biden Jr. by 16 points in New Jersey.
But Mr. Ciattarelli pivoted sharply this year, courting Mr. Trump during a visit to the president’s golf club in Bedminster, N.J., and then touting Mr. Trump’s endorsement in television ads. Mr. Ciattarelli even set up a website that questioned Mr. Spadea’s bona fides as a Trump supporter. Last week, Mr. Trump held a virtual telephone rally for Mr. Ciattarelli, who has said that he would be eager to campaign with the president in New Jersey.
Mr. Trump lost by a smaller margin last year in New Jersey against Vice President Kamala Harris than he did against Mr. Biden. Mr. Trump gained significant ground in more than half of the state’s counties as Democratic turnout lagged.
Still, Mr. Ciattarelli’s alliance with the president challenges many assumptions about Republican voters in New Jersey, who have long been seen as fiscally conservative but socially moderate. For example, the state’s last two Republican governors — Chris Christie and Christine Todd Whitman — are both outspoken opponents of Mr. Trump, as Mr. Ciattarelli once was.
Democrats outnumber Republicans in New Jersey by about 800,000 voters. To win in general elections, Republicans must appeal to the 2.4 million independent voters who are not registered with either major party.
And Mr. Ciattarelli’s full-throated support for a deeply divisive president could dim those odds.
For weeks, leading Democratic candidates for governor had already begun yoking Mr. Ciattarelli to the president.
Representative Mikie Sherrill, who was competing against five opponents for the Democratic nomination, warned that a victory by Mr. Ciattarelli would make New Jersey “a little annex of Washington.”
“White House 2.0 is not what we need in New Jersey,” she said in a recent radio interview.
But Mr. Ciattarelli is likely to be a formidable and well-funded opponent in a race that Republicans see as their best opportunity in years to regain a foothold in Trenton.
Mr. Ciattarelli is running on a platform that would result in significant statewide policy changes after eight years under Mr. Murphy.
Mr. Ciattarelli has said that he would prohibit most “elective abortions” after 20 weeks of pregnancy, repeal a directive that limits the types of voluntary assistance that law enforcement officers can provide to federal immigration authorities and halt a plan that requires towns to build a specific number of affordable housing units.
He has said that he would cut the state budget by 30 percent and speed up the gun-licensing process. He has also proposed merging New Jersey Transit, the country’s largest statewide public transportation system, with the South Jersey Transportation Authority and the New Jersey Turnpike Authority, which controls the state’s two main toll roads.
Tracey Tully is a reporter for The Times who covers New Jersey, where she has lived for more than 20 years.
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