Who is Jack Ciattarelli, New Jersey's Republican candidate for governor?

WOODLAND PARK, NJ - Former New Jersey state Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli has been running for governor for the last eight years. He failed to win the Republican primary in 2017 and fell about 84,000 votes shy of unseating incumbent Gov. Phil Murphy in 2021.

Ciattarelli, 63, is a Somerville resident and has spent decades in New Jersey politics. He served in the Assembly for five years, including three as assistant minority whip. He was a Somerset County freeholder from 2007 to 2011 and a Raritan councilman from 1990 to 1995.

He first ran for governor in the 2017 primary, which he lost to former New Jersey Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno. He announced his intentions for the 2021 election within months.

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Ciattarelli made it further in 2021, clinching the nomination but losing in the general to Murphy. Again, he almost immediately began to say he i ntended to run again in 2025 .

This time, Jack Ciattarelli has embraced Donald Trump

His campaign strategy has evolved, though, since his narrow loss to Murphy.

Namely, he has embraced President Donald Trump and the MAGA party presence.

In the 2021 primary, Ciattarelli was classified as a flip-flopping Never-Trumper, more of a Sen. Mitt Romney than Rep. Mike Johnson , but during the general election Murphy painted his opponent as Trump’s greatest ally.

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Ciattarelli initially called Trump a "charlatan" in 2015 but later endorsed Trump, and in 2020 he spoke at a "Stop the Steal" rally promoting the false conspiracy that voter fraud put Democrat Joe Biden in office, though he has not publicly endorsed it.

In this election cycle, Ciattarelli has embraced Trump. He secured the president’s endorsement in the primary and has said he agrees completely with what the administration is doing.

Shortly after his decisive primary victory, Ciattarelli told NJ.com, a USA TODAY Network partner, that there was nothing he disagreed with Trump on and said the president is "doing what needs to be done to keep the country safe" and that his "job is to keep our state safe."

Ciattarelli has noted throughout the campaign that while he served as an elected official, his day job was as a CPA, a “data guy,” as he put it.

Since the campaign heated up in late September — after it was revealed that a Ciattarelli campaign associate had obtained the U.S. Navy service record of his Democratic rival, Rep. Mikie Sherrill of Montclair — Ciattarelli has been engaged in daily combat.

After Sherrill said her records had been released as part of a political stunt encouraged by the Trump administration, Ciattarelli called on her to release her undergraduate records from her days as a midshipman at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis — with an intimation that she had not walked with her graduating class of 1994. Sherrill said she didn't walk because she had refused to name classmates involved in an infamous cheating scandal that consumed the academy during her years there.

Later, in the second debate of the campaign, Sherrill shot back at Ciattarelli, accusing his former medical publishing company and him of complicity in the opioid deaths of "tens of thousands" of New Jersey residents — remarks she defended in a meeting with the editorial board of the USA TODAY Network New Jersey. Ciattarelli, in turn, announced his intention to sue his rival for defamation.

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Curtis Bashaw, founder of the prominent South Jersey hospitality chain Cape Resorts and a one-time U.S. Senate candidate, said it’s the business experience that would make Ciattarelli a strong governor.

“I know in our part of the state that is very small-business-oriented, I’ve never seen such enthusiasm,” he said. “Someone who has signed the front side of a paycheck, been responsible for payroll every two weeks, they have a different understanding from someone who’s never done that in their entire life.”

Bashaw said the policies implemented by Trenton Democrats are “not supportive of business or starting a business.”

“We’re very highly taxed. We’re over-regulated, and we’ve got to break the stranglehold. People are leaving our state in droves for lower tax havens,” he said. “To me Jack is a no-nonsense, commonsense business guy who is practical and who wants to get things done that will benefit all New Jerseyans.”

Kate Gibbs, executive director of the New Jersey Republican Party said since every election cycle is so different, the strategy this year hasn’t been about lessons learned from 2021 but instead focusing on the grassroots effort to ensure people get out and vote.

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“We've been sure to tap into and leverage all of the amazing energy we're seeing on the ground. Jack takes questions, meets with people, has conversations all day every and we’re trying to leverage that energy and enthusiasm into the ground game,” she said. “We have an army of people out there delivering the message that it's time for change and if you are unhappy with the way things are in New Jersey right now, there is a way to fix it.”

She said that she expects high early voting turnout for Republicans because it’s a way that they are familiar with and comfortable to vote.

Gibbs noted that the party is also trying to reach voters where they are by targeting past early voters with information about that option and vote by mail voters with information focused on that. She did say that ultimately they are making sure voters know there are “three safe ways to vote in this election.”

What does Jack Ciattarelli stand for?

The former assemblyman has not shied away from sharing his first priority, getting rid of the state’s sanctuary policies and the Immigrant Trust Directive.

Ciattarelli has said he would end the corporate transit fee, which is used as a funding source for NJ Transit, and “cut business taxes in half.”

As for the transit system, he called it “bloated and broken” and said he would overhaul it.

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When it comes to reproductive health care, Ciattarelli has said he believes in providing world-class health care for women and children, before, during and after pregnancy, but that the right to abortion is already protected by state law and should not be codified in the state constitution.

He voted against same-sex marriage during his time in the Assembly and frequently campaigns on the premise of keeping men out of women’s sports in relation to trans student athletes.

The Trump administration has made clear its intent to cut federal funding for education and Medicaid. Ciattarelli has said he would “fight for New Jersey’s fair share” and provide Medicaid funding to “seniors, the poor and disabled” but would “crack down on any fraud.”

In the face of considerable utility rate hikes, Ciattarelli has said he would implement a new energy master plan and that while he recognizes that AI data centers “present an economic development opportunity,” he won’t allow them in the state until “we can meet their energy needs.” He has also said he would 100% expand natural gas in an effort to diversify energy sources.

Ciattarelli has said he would address the state’s housing crisis with a regional approach aimed at “driving population growth to transit hubs and urban centers.”

He also said he would expand school choice, replace the current school funding formula and give more curriculum control to “parents, teachers and local school boards.”

Katie Sobko covers the New Jersey Statehouse. Email: sobko@northjersey.com

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Who is Jack Ciattarelli, NJ Republican governor candidate?