Trump endorses Ciattarelli for governor, cementing him as clear GOP frontrunner

President Donald Trump endorsed Jack Ciattarelli in a social media post tonight – a post that may have single-handedly ended the Republican primary for governor.

“Jack is the Republican Candidate who is best positioned to STAND TALL against the Radical Left Democrats and, most importantly, ensure a Big Victory in this Very Important Gubernatorial Election,” Trump wrote in a lengthy post. “Jack Ciattarelli is a WINNER, and has my Complete and Total Endorsement – HE WILL NOT LET YOU DOWN.”

Ciattarelli already had a large polling lead over his closest opponent for the GOP gubernatorial nomination, former radio host Bill Spadea, who had tried to paint himself as the true Trump loyalist in the race. In a Republican electorate that has become near-totally loyal to Trump, tonight’s endorsement is likely to cement Ciattarelli’s lead even more firmly.

“Truly humbled and honored to receive President Trump’s very strong endorsement today,” Ciattarelli said. “It’s time to unite our party, win big in November, and make New Jersey affordable and safe again. When I’m Governor, we will.”

The idea of Trump endorsing Ciattarelli would have been an odd prospect a decade ago, when Ciattarelli was still an explicitly anti-Trump Republican, saying at one point that the Trump was a “charlatan” who was “not fit to be president of the United States.” Ciattarelli ran for governor in 2017 and lost the primary to Lieutenant Gov. Kim Guadagno, who in turn lost the general election to now-Gov. Phil Murphy.

When Ciattarelli ran a second time in 2021, he had tamped down his anti-Trump rhetoric substantially, but he still kept himself at arm’s length from the president, especially after the events of January 6. He was afforded that luxury in part because he did not face a particularly serious primary challenger from the right; after winning the GOP nomination that year, he went on to lose narrowly to Murphy.

The distrust between Ciattarelli and Trump ran high enough that, in May 2024, Trump appeared on Spadea’s radio show and slammed Ciattarelli, saying he had “made some very big mistakes” by not actively seeking his support. On that same show, Trump explicitly praised Spadea, who was a few months away from launching his own gubernatorial campaign, as someone who’d “had [his] back from the beginning.”

But in the year since then, especially after Trump’s unexpected surge among New Jersey voters last November, Ciattarelli has worked to mend those bridges. Unlike his first two campaigns, Ciattarelli’s third gubernatorial campaign has largely been unapologetically pro-Trump, though he still holds some more moderate views on issues like abortion and LGBT rights.

Ciatatrelli also actively shored up his support in Trump’s orbit by meeting with the president at Bedminster, releasing internal polls showing him far ahead of Spadea, highlighting old clips of Spadea criticizing Trump, and using Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s former campaign manager who now runs a pro-Ciattarelli super PAC, as a surrogate. (Conway said last month that if she were “a betting woman,” she’d bet on Trump endorsing Ciattarelli, a bet that clearly paid off.)

In his post tonight, Trump alluded to Ciattarelli’s ideological journey, seeming to say that it didn’t bother him much; after all, his own presidential administration is stuffed with his former critics.

“Jack, who after getting to know and understand MAGA, has gone ALL IN, and is now 100% (PLUS!),” Trump said.

Spadea, meanwhile, worked hard to prevent tonight’s endorsement from occurring. He similarly met with Trump at Bedminster shortly after the Ciattarelli meeting, and has pitched himself throughout the campaign as the Trumpiest candidate in the race, taking hardline stances on immigration, abortion, and LGBT issues that went further than any other serious New Jersey GOP candidate in recent memory.

But Spadea’s efforts, evidently, were in vain. Part of the problem was that Spadea’s campaign simply never managed to catch up to Ciattarelli on an institutional level; having built up relationships all across the state over the last decade, Ciattarelli got endorsements from most state GOP party leaders and organizations, and his fundraising has also consistently outstripped Spadea’s. Having backed a losing U.S. Senate candidate in last year’s New Jersey primary, Trump may have been keen to avoid supporting another risky option.

Following Trump’s endorsement, Spadea said that he has every intention of fighting out the primary to the end, and noted that some past Trump endorsees, like 2024 U.S. Senate candidate Christine Serrano Glassner, still failed to win their primaries.

“Donald Trump’s endorsement comes after a years long effort by Jack to lie about his own record. My resolve to fight for the people of New Jersey has never been greater,” Spadea said. “I intend to continue fighting for the America First agenda because that is what’s best for the state and our nation.”

Three other candidates are running for the GOP gubernatorial nomination, one of whom, State Sen. Jon Bramnick (R-Westfield), also has a serious campaign operation in place. But Bramnick has long been one of the Republican Party’s last true Trump-skeptical voices, and while the longtime state legislator has said he’d have welcomed Trump’s endorsement if he’d gotten it, that was never a realistic possibility.

The other two candidates are contractor Justin Barbera and former Englewood Cliffs Mayor Mario Kranjac, neither of whom raised enough money to appear on debate stages or remain part of the top tier. When he first entered the race in January, Kranjac tried to establish himself as an even Trumpier alternative to Spadea, but it never caught on.

Trump’s endorsement quickly caused a cascade of further endorsements from those who hadn’t yet taken sides in the race, including from Trump loyalist Mike Crispi.

“President Trump has confidence in [Ciattarelli]. I do too,” Crispi said.

Some Republican leaders have gone so far as to suggest that the other candidates drop out and allow the party to coalesce behind Ciattarelli.

“The gravitas of the President’s endorsement paves the way for our friend Jack Ciattarelli to be the next governor of New Jersey. We must now focus on him winning the general election,” said Sussex County GOP Chairman Joseph LaBarbera, who had not yet formally endorsed anyone. “We ask the other gubernatorial candidates to form a team of former rivals, like Lincoln did, to help make New Jersey a fully America first state, to help other Republican candidates on the ballot and to win the legislature.”

Hudson County Republican Chairman Jose Arango similarly called on the other candidates to “do the right thing” and endorse Ciattarelli.

“We have our America First candidate,” he said.

With Trump now having put his thumb on the scale, it’s hard to imagine any other candidate overcoming Ciattarelli’s already-enormous lead – 30 percentage points, according to an April Rutgers-Eagleton poll. But New Jersey Democrats, who have a hotly contested six-way primary of their own to get through, would like to have voters believe that the bitter Ciattarelli-Spadea primary isn’t over just yet.

“One thing is clear: This [endorsement] is only a band-aid on a deeply contentious, bitter GOP primary that still has a month to go,” New Jersey Democratic State Committee spokesperson Ryan Radulovacki said in a statement. “The race to court Trump’s far-right MAGA base will cause turbulence for whoever emerges from this slugfest, long after June 10th.”