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With a week and a half until Election Day and the latest polls suggesting Republican nominee Jack Ciattarelli narrowing the gap with Democratic rival Rep. Mikie Sherrill in New Jersey’s race for governor, President Donald Trump is stepping in to push his GOP ally over the finish line.
While not physically dropping into the Garden State campaign trail, at least as of now, Trump will headline a tele-rally with Ciattarelli on Friday night, hours before early voting kicks off in New Jersey’s competitive gubernatorial showdown.
“EARLY VOTING EVE TELE-RALLY with President Donald J. Trump! Join us Friday, October 24 at 7:00 PM,” the Ciattarelli campaign blasted out on social media ahead.
Ciattarelli, who’s making his third straight run for Garden State governor and who nearly upset Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy four years ago, fell short as plenty of Republican voters sat out the election.
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In what may be a low-turnout election where getting base voters to the polls will be crucial, the hope is that the tele-rally with the president, and the recent campaign trail stops by high-profile Trump allies Vivek Ramaswamy and Rep. Byron Donalds, will energize MAGA supporters, many of whom are low propensity voters who often skip casting ballots in non-presidential election years.
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Trump, taking to social media earlier this week, touted that Ciattarelli “is doing very well in the Polls” and urged his supporters in the Garden State to “VOTE FOR JACK CIATTARELLI — HE WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN!”
The president has good reason to be optimistic about Ciattarelli’s chances.
In a state where registered Democrats still outnumber Republicans despite a GOP surge in registration this decade, four public opinion polls released over the past two weeks — from Fox News, Quinnipiac University, Fairleigh Dickinson University and Rutgers-Eagleton — indicated Ciattarelli tightening the margins with Sherrill in the race to succeed the term-limited Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy. Other public and internal surveys suggest a margin-of-error contest.
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“As you know, many of these polls have a dead heat. And that’s in a state in which Republicans typically under poll because we are the minority party,” Ciattarelli told Fox News this week, during a campaign stop at a diner.
New Jersey and Virginia are the only two states to hold gubernatorial showdowns in the year after a presidential election, and the contests traditionally grab outsized attention and are viewed as political barometers ahead of the following year’s midterm elections.
And this year, they’re being viewed, in part, as ballot-box referendums on Trump’s unprecedented and explosive second-term agenda.
While Democrats have long dominated federal and state legislative elections in blue-leaning New Jersey, Republicans are very competitive in gubernatorial contests, winning five out of the past 10 elections.
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And Trump made major gains in New Jersey in last year’s presidential election, losing the state by only six percentage points, a vast improvement over his 16-point deficit four years earlier.
Ciattarelli, a one-time certified public accountant who started a medical publishing company before getting into politics and winning election as a state lawmaker, landed Trump’s endorsement earlier this year, in the GOP gubernatorial nomination race. And the president headlined a tele-rally for Ciattarelli ahead of the June primary. Trump’s backing helped Ciattarelli cruise to an easy and convincing primary victory in a nomination race that centered on support for the president.
“There’s obviously a whole lot of people across the state of New Jersey that are pleased with the job the president’s doing,” Ciattarelli told Fox News Digital last week.
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While Trump isn’t on the ballot, he’s loomed large over the New Jersey gubernatorial election.
At this month’s second and final debate, Sherrill charged that her GOP rival had “shown zero signs of standing up to this president. In fact, the president himself called Jack 100% MAGA, and he’s shown every sign of being that.”
Asked whether he considered himself part of the MAGA movement, Ciattarelli said he was “part of a New Jersey movement.”
But when asked to grade the president’s performance so far during his second term, Ciattarelli said, “I’d certainly give the president an A. I think he’s right about everything that he’s doing.”
“I think that tells us all we need to know about who Jack Ciattarelli’s supporting. I give him an F right now,” Sherrill responded, as she pointed to New Jersey’s high cost of living.
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On Wednesday, Sherrill told reporters “what New Jersey wants is a leader, not a lackey, and that’s basically what he’s shown himself to be,” as she pointed to Ciattarelli’s support for Trump.
And the Democratic National Committee, in a statement, argued that “it’s clear that this election comes down to one major truth: Jack is 100% for Trump, while Mikie Sherrill is 100% for New Jersey,”
Linking Ciattarelli to Trump may energize Democrats and sway independents in a state where the president’s poll numbers are well underwater.
But Donalds argued that Sherrill’s focus on linking Ciattarelli to Trump would backfire.
“I think that’s a stupid strategy,” Donalds told Fox News outside of a diner in Linden, N.H. “Let me tell you why. He secured the border. That’s what the American people want, even people in New Jersey. He’s done that. Our economy is sound and getting better every single day. That’s what all Americans want.”
With the race headed towards a possible photo-finish, both candidates are playing up the positives.
“Our polling’s looking good. I think we’re feeling really good right now,” Sherrill touted as she spoke with Fox News Digital.
Sherrill, a U.S. Naval Academy graduate who flew helicopters during her military service and who was first elected to Congress in 2018, added that “we’re seeing great returns on the vote by mails. We’ll start early voting the 25th, which we’re really excited about. We’re seeing a ton of energy on the ground,” she told Fox News.
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And she highlighted that her campaign has “the biggest volunteer field program that anyone in New Jersey has ever run… We are getting the right doors, and I’m really excited about what we’re gonna see.”
Ciattarelli, points to the energy among his supporters and the crowds he seeing on the campaign trail. And he added at a stop this week that “when you have the endorsement of Democratic mayors across the state, it says people want change. That’s exactly what we’re going to deliver when we win this race.”