GOP candidates for governor pull no punches in explosive debate

A quartet of New Jersey Republican candidates for governor met for their first debate Tuesday night in a marauding, cacophonous affair.

After a relatively calm Democratic debate on Sunday night, Republicans pounced as they accused each other of being bad party members, unpopular, or ineffective. Tuesday’s debate was the first for the Republican field as the GOP looks to take the statehouse after eight years of Democratic control under Gov. Phil Murphy.

The two leading candidates, former Assemblyman and 2021 nominee Jack Ciattarelli and radio personality Bill Spadea, dueled throughout the night as both tried to present themselves as more supportive of President Donald Trump. Ciattarelli and Spadea, who are each trying to secure the vote of a GOP electorate that increasingly unites behind Trump, dredged up past statements in their efforts to undermine the other’s MAGA bona fides.

“As for Bill Spadea, when he’s not lying about me or trashing Donald Trump, he’s someone that refers to the moderate wing of our party as RINOs,” Ciattarelli said while urging Republican unity.

“This is a man who didn’t vote for Trump, who didn’t advocate for Trump, who didn’t want him in the state, and got behind two never-Trumpers in the 2024 primary, Chris Christie and Nikki Haley,” Spadea said about Ciattarelli.

Ciattarelli and Spadea weren’t the only candidates to wrestle in the mud. State Sen. Jon Bramnick (R-Westfield) and former state Sen. Ed Durr (R-Logan) tussled too, largely as Durr accused Bramnick of not being conservative enough.

Bramnick focused on his electability throughout the night. The legislator touted his victories in a legislative district that voted for Democrats Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in the most recent presidential elections, and he criticized the other candidates for spending too much time cozying up to the president during the debate.

“Do you think the people of New Jersey want to debate who loves Donald Trump or who loves New Jersey the most?” Bramnick said to some applause.

But Bramnick proved that Republicans can only stray so far from Trump when he garnered boos (with some scattered applause) for chastising the president’s pardons for violent protesters who attempted to overturn the results of the 2020 election on Jan. 6, 2021.

“[Trump] even pardoned people who violently attacked police officers,” Bramnick said. “Let me just let me make this clear: We’re either the party of law and order, or we’re not.”

The state senator told reporters after the debate he wasn’t surprised to hear boos when he criticized Trump’s pardons, but he was proud to stick to his values and support law enforcement officials injured during the attack.

“That’s how I differ from the other three people on this stage,” he said.

Durr, who has perhaps the narrowest path to victory of the four candidates at the debate, framed himself as an anti-establishment candidate who shocked the state once and can do it again. Durr, a truck driver, pulled off one of the biggest political upsets in state history when he defeated then-Senate President Steve Sweeney in 2021.

Durr criticized Ciattarelli—the GOP’s 2021 gubernatorial nominee—for not campaigning with him during the truck driver’s upset bid.

“You did not beat Steve Sweeney,” Durr said. “I beat Steve with the people’s help, not you.”

On New Jersey’s Laura Jones moderated the debate. David Wildstein and Joey Fox of the New Jersey Globe, Micah Rasmussen, the director of the Rebovich Institute at Rider University, and Matt Rooney, the editor of Save Jersey, served as panelists. Rider University hosted the debate.

The debate was chock-full of one-liners. Ciattarelli called Spadea a “professional liar.” Durr said Bramnick belonged at Sunday’s Democratic debate. When Ciattarelli, who has twice run for governor, critiqued Spadea’s two previous campaign losses, Bramnick said, “Jack’s talking about two-time losers?”

Most of Tuesday night’s questions ended with at least two of the candidates yelling at each other—some of the questions ended with all of the candidates yelling at each other.

Like Trump, the candidates returned to the issue of immigration regularly. In what has become a recurring theme in this campaign, Spadea and Ciattarelli accused each other of being soft on undocumented immigrants; Spadea cited Ciattarelli’s past support for undocumented citizens receiving driver’s licenses, and Ciattarelli called out clips in which Spadea supported amnesty for undocumented immigrants.

Regardless of previous statements, the candidates have hardened stances on illegal immigration. Bramnick, the moderate of the group, said Tuesday night that he would end New Jersey’s status as a so-called “sanctuary state” and fully cooperate with immigration officials.

“Look, I feel very badly about certain people been here for 30 years, and this is their life,” Bramnick said. “But we have to follow the law as a governor of this state.”

The candidates used differing rhetoric in regards to transgender New Jerseyans as well. Bramnick and Ciattarelli said the GOP should focus on protecting all citizens regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identities.

“The Republican Party should always have a heart,” Bramnick said.

Spadea said there is a difference between sexual orientation and “mental illness.” He and Durr questioned the identities of transgender people and argued bathrooms and other spaces should be separated by sex assigned at birth instead of gender identity.

Durr dialed up his criticisms of the state’s political system throughout the night. He said a “cabal” of establishment figures control politics in New Jersey and claimed he would undo all of Gov. Phil Murphy’s executive orders on Day 1 of a Durr governorship.

Spadea lambasted Murphy’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, especially vaccination requirements. The former 101.5 radio host said he would rehire and provide back pay to any state employees who lost their job because of vaccination requirements and called the COVID vaccine a “poison jab.”

The candidates attacked the state’s handling of education—Ciattarelli said he would fire the top officials of the New Jersey Department of Education.

Spadea said the state should also reconsider how it approaches pensions and didn’t promise to fully fund the state’s pension system.

In closing statements, the nearly two-hour debate ended much how it began: with Ciattarelli and Spadea attacking each other, Bramnick celebrating his electability, and Durr promising to shock the political world.

But by the end, even the candidates were shocked by what they’d seen.

“I’m sorry I didn’t bring any popcorn,” Durr said.