Republican candidate Jack Ciattarelli, left, shakes hands with Democratic candidate for governor Mikie Sherrill, right, before a debate on Sunday, Sept. 21, 2025, in Lawrenceville, N.J. (AP Photo/Noah K. Murray)
"As Trump has inflicted all this damage on our country, Republican politicians like Jack Ciattarelli have cheered him on every step of the way," Sherrill emphasized in a recent fundraising email to supporters.
On Sunday, at the first debate between the gubernatorial nominees, Sherrill pointed to Ciattarelli and charged that "he’ll do whatever Trump tells him to do."
And in her closing statement, she argued that "Jack’s going to go in lockstep with Washington as he drives — as Trump drives — up your energy costs."
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Interviewed a couple of days later, as he met with voters of Korean heritage at a restaurant in Fort Lee, New Jersey, Ciattarelli said Trump is "certainly something that all my opponent wants to talk about."
And Ciattarelli, who came close to upsetting Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy four years ago, discounted talk that Trump is the dominant issue in the race.
Republican Jack Ciattarelli celebrates with supporters after winning the New Jersey GOP gubernatorial nomination, on primary night, June 10, 2025, in Holmdel, N.J. (Paul Steinhauser/Fox News)
While New Jersey has long been a blue state in presidential elections, Trump improved from a 16-point loss in the state in the 2020 election to a 6-point deficit last November.
And Ciattarelli isn't shying away from Trump's support. He said last month at an event at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey that "we're going to look to deploy the president, the White House, in every way that we can."
While the president praised Ciattarelli on Thursday in a social media post, saying, "He will be a GREAT Governor," Trump has yet to join his party's nominee on the campaign trail.
Asked if a joint campaign trail appearance with Trump will take place before Election Day, Ciattarelli said he's "really pleased that the White House has offered to help us in any way that we see fit."
But he added, "I've got to earn this thing. I've been doing that for the past 15 months. I'm gonna go out there and do it for the last six weeks."
While Sherrill has consistently aimed to tie Ciattarelli to Trump, she's also been shining a campaign spotlight on affordability, as inflation concerns persist.
Republican gubernatorial nominee Jack Ciattarelli of New Jersey sits for a Fox News Digital interview, on Sept. 24, 2025 in Fort Lee, N.J. (Paul Steinhauser - Fox News)
The latest public opinion polls suggest a close contest between Sherrill, a U.S. Naval Academy graduate who later served as a helicopter pilot, and a former federal prosecutor, before first winning election to Congress in 2018, and Ciattarelli, a former state lawmaker and a certified public accountant who started a medical publishing company before getting into politics.
Ciattarelli said he'll continue what he describes as a relentless campaign trail schedule.
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"Each and every day we touch four counties, we go out and talk about how it is we're gonna fix New Jersey, and you gotta press the flesh," he said.
And he claimed that "my opponent hasn't done that, and she's ducking appearances left and right."
Paul Steinhauser is a politics reporter based in the swing state of New Hampshire. He covers the campaign trail from coast to coast."
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/republican-aiming-flip-blue-state-rips-dem-rival-blaming-everything-trump