TOTOWA, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey Republicans are trying to ride the coattails of Donald Trump’s 2024 electoral momentum, with gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli courting voters in a key — and traditionally Democratic — stronghold that contributed to the president’s gains in the state.
Ciattarelli and Virginia candidate Winsome Earle-Sears are crisscrossing their respective states, while Trump spoke at telephone rallies with voters later Monday. This comes after their opponents, U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill and Abigail Spanberger, campaigned over the weekend alongside former President Barack Obama.
It’s a delicate balance for Republicans, who want to catch some of Trump’s electoral energy by drawing infrequently voting conservatives to the polls while not dismissing concerns about increasing costs. Democrats are urging voters to see the off-year election as a referendum on Trump’s economic policies and his efforts to expand his power.
Trump said Monday that Virginia voters should back “Republicans up and down the ballot” in an effort to make the state more affordable. “Republicans will bring back everything that you want,” he said at the virtual town hall alongside Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin.
Still, the president was seemingly hesitant to assert himself in the race. Despite throwing barbs at Spanberger, Trump avoided key opportunities to endorse Earle-Sears by name. The lieutenant governor did not speak during the call.
On a call for Ciattarelli, Trump was effusive in praising the former Assembly member and business owner who he said loves the state and is fighting for lower costs.
“Mikie Sherrill will send New Jersey Jersey into a death spiral,” the president said.
Ciattarelli paid a visit to a crowded Irish bar in Passaic County, one of the traditionally blue areas that highlighted Trump’s strength in 2024. It’s also a county where the Department of Justice is set to send poll watchers.
At the bar, a reporter pointed out the president’s absence on the campaign trail and asked Ciattarelli: Is Trump a “liability” to him? The candidate was also asked to respond to attacks from his opponent that he would not stand up to the Republican president.
“New Jerseyans know who I am. I will fiercely defend the 9 million citizens of this state every day,” Ciattarelli said.
The stop featured a surprise appearance of the candidate’s son, Army Capt. Jake Ciattarelli, who flew in from Kuwait and showed up in uniform. Defense Department regulations impose broad restrictions on troops participating in partisan activity, especially in uniform, in an effort to maintain the military’s historically apolitical role in American society.
Sherrill, the Democratic opponent, spoke in Morristown, where her first campaign for Congress in 2018 got its start. She tried to cast the contest in New Jersey in clear national terms.
“It’s going to be up to the next governor to take on the federal administration to claw back as much money as possible and have them in court if they refuse to run programs that they should be running for the people of New Jersey,” Sherrill said. She has seized on the Trump administration’s decision to abruptly freeze funding for a project on the Hudson River to replace the aging rail tunnels that connect New Jersey to New York City.
In Virginia, Democratic National Committee chair Ken Martin was knocking on doors for Spanberger and other Democrats. He said he felt confident that Democrats’ focus on affordability would pay off on Tuesday.
Martin said he felt the diverse array of candidates, from Spanberger and Sherrill to Zohran Mamdani, the party’s New York City mayoral candidate, did well because they put the economy at the forefront of their campaigns.
“People are going to vote their pocketbook issues, their kitchen table issues, their own family anxieties about their future, before any other issue they care about,” Martin told The Associated Press.
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