Republican who nearly upset Phil Murphy announces another run for governor

After a close loss to Gov. Phil Murphy (D-NJ) in 2021, Republican Jack Ciattarelli is again entering the race for the job. 

Ciattarelli, a former New Jersey state assemblyman, announced Tuesday that he would run for the state’s highest office for the third time since 2017. This time, it won’t be against Murphy, as he is term-limited. 

“It’s time for a commonsense problem solver,” Ciattarelli said. “A chief executive officer. A hands-on CEO who knows exactly what needs to be done and is willing to do it. I think I know a guy.”

He seeks to appeal to former President Donald Trump’s supporters, contrasting himself with his Republican competitors, including state Sen. Jon Bramnick, a “never Trump-er.” 

Bramnick is running on a more centrist platform than Ciattarelli in hopes of capturing swing voters and preventing Democrats from driving the state further to the left. Bramnick’s district is within Morris County, which leaned Democratic in 2020.

The two have already traded blows, with Ciattarelli saying New Jersey needs “a candidate who can convince Democrats to support our ideas — not one who suffers from a ‘minority mentality’ or surrenders to Democratic Party bosses over hot dogs and hamburgers.”

Bramnick didn’t wait long to hit back at Ciattarelli.

“I got more done having hamburgers and hot dogs with Democrats than a perennial candidate has done running and losing for eight years,” Bramnick said. “Maybe because he hasn’t been in Trenton for a decade, he forgot who has the majority in the legislature. Hate is not a political strategy.”

One talking point Ciattarelli emphasized in his announcement was his effort to establish an amendment to limit state lawmakers to eight years in office. That rule, if implemented earlier, would have disqualified Bramnick from office during his 2003 to 2022 stint as a state assemblyman.

Ciattarelli captured 48% of the vote in 2021, which came as a surprise since Trump lost the state in the 2020 presidential election by almost 16 points, up by 2 from 2016.

“How the hell did we nearly knock off an incumbent governor in a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans by 1 million? In all 21 counties and 564 towns, we almost pulled it off because of people like you,” Ciattarelli said at his announcement on Tuesday.

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie provides a mold for Ciattarelli to emulate, having been elected twice as a Republican despite Democrats holding the office from 2002 to 2009. 

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New Jersey’s gubernatorial electoral history has indicated that voters tend not to stick with one party, as neither party has held the office for longer than eight years since 1970, when Democrats had a 16-year stretch. 

That history is favorable to Ciattarelli, who looks to be a notable contender for the governorship with Murphy unable to run again. However, he has a long way to go, contending with a formidable Republican primary opponent and a Democratic state he will try to flip back red in 2025.