TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — President Donald Trump on Monday implored voters in New Jersey’s primary for governor to support Republican Jack Ciattarelli and said the state was ready for a change after years of Democratic control.
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.
Trump’s call for early voting, which began Tuesday, 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.
Early in-person voting began 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.
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