Trump Made Big Gains In New Jersey. Now He Could Tip The Republican Primary For Governor.

New Jersey’s Republican primary for governor is heated, nasty, and dripping with contempt. The two top contenders, Jack Ciattarelli and Bill Spadea, wouldn’t even make eye contact when they took a break from savaging each other during a debate earlier this month.

But Ciattarelli and Spadea have one thing in common: supporting President Donald Trump, who with a tweet or a “Truth” could upend the primary and tip the field for his selection in a blue state he turned a shade of purple in November.

Trump came an unexpectedly close six points to carrying New Jersey’s 14 electoral votes, fueling GOP hopes of a statewide victory this year. A Republican hasn’t won the governorship since Chris Christie was reelected in 2013.

So as Ciattarelli and Spadea make their appeals to the MAGA masses, they also appear to be crafting messages designed to be heard by one part-time New Jersey resident in particular: Trump.

“If Trump endorses Spadea, I think the primary is over. We’ll just have to wait and see what the president decides to do,” said George Gilmore, the Ocean County Republican chair and Spadea backer, who’s on the payroll of a Spadea-linked PAC. (Gilmore received a pardon from Trump in 2021 after being convicted of two tax-related felonies in 2019).

Ciattarelli and Spadea aren’t the only candidates portraying themselves as the New Jersey version of Trump. Former state Sen. Ed Durr is quick to point out that Trump personally called him following his shocking 2021 upset of longtime Democratic Senate president Steve Sweeney. And former Englewood Cliffs Mayor Mario Kranjac was recruited to run by a group called “America First Republicans of New Jersey.

State Sen. Jon Bramnick is the anomaly candidate as a moderate Republican who’s been openly critical of Trump for years.

Just one month into his return as president, Trump is already getting involved in gubernatorial politics. Last week he backed Republican Rep. Byron Donalds for governor in Florida — a race that isn’t until next year. New Jersey’s primary is in June. And the candidates’ eagerness to show fealty to the president while courting an endorsement could be a sign of things to come for the 2026 midterms.

Trump in the past has tried and failed to play kingmaker in New Jersey. In the 2024 Senate primary, Trump endorsed Mendham Borough Mayor Christine Serrano-Glassner, the wife of former Trump adviser Michael Glassner, over businessperson Curtis Bashaw. Bashaw won the primary.

But Bashaw also had the “county line” in more counties than Glassner, giving him the advantage of a unique New Jersey primary structure that granted him favorable ballot placement. This year, there is no county line, making a Trump endorsement a potentially much more potent force because political organizations are seen as weakened.

Spadea, who until recently hosted a drive time radio show where he promoted far-right conspiracy theories about vaccines and the 2020 election, has a simple appeal: He’s the Trumpiest of the candidates. At the same time, he’s emphasizing how Ciattarelli had shied away from the former president’s support when he was New Jersey’s Republican gubernatorial nominee in 2021. Ciattarelli surprised many by coming within three points of winning the governorship that year, and Trump has suggested Ciattarelli could have won if he’d embraced him .

“I have been an ardent, strong and effective supporter of President Trump since he came down the escalator in 2015,” Spadea said at the debate.

Ciattarelli and his allies are using a two-pronged approach: Sew doubt about the extent of Spadea’s loyalty to Trump while suggesting Spadea’s comparatively lackluster fundraising won’t be able to compete with the state’s long-dominant Democrats in November’s general election. (Spadea’s campaign in the last quarter of 2024 raised $280,000 to Ciattarelli’s $819,000).

Former Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway and ad man Larry Weitzner, who worked on Trump’s 2016 and 2020 campaigns, are heading a Ciattarelli-aligned super PAC called “Kitchen Table Conservatives” that has brought up statements by Spadea critical of Trump and they’ve called out Spadea’s fundraising numbers.

Going by Trump’s own pre-election statements, he appears inclined towards Spadea. Just before holding a rally in Wildwood last May, Trump called into Spadea’s radio show and told him “you’ve had my back from the beginning.” Trump also criticized Ciattarelli, without mentioning him by name, for not seeking Trump’s help in his 2021 campaign.

“This guy never came to ask for my support. And you know what? When MAGA sees that, they don’t like it and they didn’t vote for him. He would have won easily if he did, but he didn’t do that. He thinks he’s hot stuff, I guess,” Trump said. Spadea’s campaign team includes Bill Stepien, Trump’s 2020 campaign manager, as a consultant.

But Ciattarelli and his allies, who’ve dug through thousands of hours of Spadea’s radio show, have reposted Spadea’s criticism of Trump following the 2020 election, even if much of it was for not being aggressive enough against his critics and “the deep state.”

In one video clip, Spadea said “I do not want President Trump to run again. I think it’s time for new blood, I think it’s time for governors like Ron DeSantis, governors like Kristi Noem and others out there to be a strong voice for normal. Trump screwed up. He should have fired Fauci, he should have fired every single person at the FBI. I would have shut the FBI down immediately.”

A senior Cittareelli campaign official, who was granted anonymity to discuss campaign strategy, said that people in Trump’s orbit had been unaware of Spadea’s criticism. “Spadea’s comments post-2020 regarding Trump have been a revelation to people in Trump World, and certainly undermine Sapdea’s claim that he’s been a Trump OG,” the person said.

Ciattarelli has his own negative history of Trump comments. Ciattarelli called him a “charlatan” in 2015 and said he should drop out of that race following the Access Hollywood tape in which Trump boasted of grabbing women by their private parts. But Ciattarelli’s backers stress that his most negative comments about the president were from nearly 10 years ago and that Ciattarelli’s evolution towards a Trump supporter has been a “straight line” while they portray Spadea as wishy-washy.

While candidates are trying to convince primary voters of their support of Trump, the campaigns haven’t been public about what, if any, direct outreach they’ve made to the president.

Kranjac, the former Englewood Cliffs mayor, in a phone interview said that he’s the most Trump-aligned candidate, arguing he “kept Marxism out of schools by resisting a 2021 state law on teaching diversity and inclusion instruction that he characterized as “marxist,” as well as by sending a police overtime bill, later retracted, to the organizer of a Black Lives Matter protest. “People know I’m the only candidate who will do what everyone says I’ll do in terms of filing New Jersey, because I did it in Englewood Cliffs,” Kranjac said. “I was the victim of a lot of the lawfare and censures and litigation.”

Spadea’s allies view Kranjac — who recently touted the endorsement of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich — with suspicion, suggesting his campaign is meant to play spoiler.

“It’s designed to take votes away from Spadea, which only helps one person. That’s Ciattarelli,” said Gilmore, the Ocean County GOP chair. Kranjac denied that, saying he has “no intent to do anything but to win the primary and win the election."

Durr, a truck driver who shocked the political world in 2021 by defeating Sweeney — the longtime Democratic state Senate president — said he’s the only candidate who’s said exclusively positive things about Trump and would welcome his endorsement. But he’d rather the candidates talk about New Jersey issues.

“I think there needs to be more substance behind the candidates than just saying you’re for Trump,” Durr said.