Trump is looming in the race of the Governor of New Jersey between Ciattarelli, Sherrill

Fort Lee, nj – He is not on the ballot, but President Donald Trump and his second term of Ballot and controversial mandate weigh heavily on this year’s ballot box for the governor of New Jersey.

And the republican candidate for governor, Jack Ciattarelli, who benefits from the president’s support, explains the Democratic candidate, representative Mikie Sherrill, tries to use Trump as a cake.

“Listen, if you get a flat tire on the way back to work today, she will blame him on the president. There is nothing that she does not blame on the president,” said Ciattarelli, when he was sitting this week for an interview with Fox News Digital.

New Jersey is only one of the two states, as well as Virginia, which organize elections across the State for the Governor in November. And the competitions, which traditionally attract disproportionate national attention, are considered to be early tests of the popularity and the agenda of the president, and key barometers before the mid-term confrontations of next year for the Chamber and the Senate.

Head here for Fox News 2025 electoral coverage

The republican candidate Jack Ciattarelli, on the left, shakes the hand of the Democratic candidate for Governor Mikie Sherrill, on the right, before a debate on Sunday September 21, 2025, in Lawrenceville, NJ (AP photo / Noah K. Murray)

“While Trump inflicted all this damage on our country, republican politicians as Jack Ciattarelli encouraged him at each stage,” said Sherrill in a recent fundraising e-mail to the partisans.

On Sunday, during the first debate between the nominees for the governor, Sherrill underlined Ciattarelli and accused “he will do everything that Trump tells him to do”.

And in her closing declaration, she argued that “Jack was going to block with Washington while he was driving – as Trump drives – increase your energy costs”.

Trump not on the ballot but before and center in 2025 elections

Interviewed a few days later, when he met the voters of Korean Heritage in a restaurant in Fort Lee, New Jersey, Ciattarelli said that Trump is “certainly something that all my opponent wants to talk about”.

And Ciattarelli, who almost turned the Democratic Governor Phil Murphy to upset four years ago, reduced the speeches that Trump is the dominant question of the race.

Jack Ciattarelli, the republican candidate for the governor of New Jersey, answers questions from the Korean heritage voters, in a restaurant in Fort Lee, NJ on September 24, 2025. (Paul Steinhauser – Fox News)

“We have a land fiscal crisis in the state. The president has nothing to do with this. We have a public security crisis in the state. Non -violent crime is through the roof. It has nothing to do with it. We have a public education crisis, a deafenvelopment crisis. Look at your monthly electricity bill.

From Kirk to Kimmel – First fiery debate between Ciattarelli, Sherrill

Ciattarelli, when he reached a second consecutive GOP victory as Governor in June thanks to the president’s approval, said Sherrill would nationalize the race.

“If this campaign was a game of alcohol consumption and you pulled each time Mikie Sherrill says Trump, you are going to be drunk from your – every day … By November 4,” Ciattarelli said at the time.

The republican Jack Ciattarelli famous with supporters after having won the appointment to the governor of New Jersey Gop, Le Soir Primaire, on June 10, 2025, in Holmdel, NJ (Paul Steinhauser / Fox News)

While New Jersey has long been a blue state in the presidential elections, Trump has dropped from a loss of 16 points in the state in the 2020 elections to a 6 -point deficit last November.

And Ciattarelli does not move away from Trump’s support. He declared last month at an event at the National Golf Club Trump in Bedminster, New Jersey, “we will seek to deploy the president, the White House, in any way possible”.

While the president welcomed Ciattarelli Thursday in an article on social networks, saying: “He will be a big governor”, Trump has not yet joined the candidate of his party on the campaign track.

When asked if a joint appearance of the trail with Trump will take place before election day, Ciattarelli said that it was “really happy that the White House offered to help us in any way we judge.”

But he added: “I have to win this thing. I have been doing this for 15 months. I’m going to go there and do it for six weeks.”

While Sherrill has always aimed to link Ciattarelli to Trump, she also highlighted the campaign on affordability, because the concerns of inflation persist.

The Democrat representative of the Governor of Governors Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey answers questions during the first general electoral debate with the republican opponent Jack Ciattarelli, on September 21, 2025, in Lawrenceville, NJ (AP photo / Noah K. Murray)

“I am focused on laser to reduce costs for families like yours. I will declare a state of emergency on the first day, freeze your rate increases. I will demand the transparency and the responsibility of our government to save you time and money,” she said at the start of the first debate.

Ciattarelli replied that Democrats are to blame, while he has overtime trying to connect Sherrill to Murphy, who is limited to term, and the Democrats who have long controlled state legislature in Trenton.

“They have checked the legislature for 25 years. They have had the governor over the past eight years,” Ciattarelli told Fox News by signaling the Democrats. “And look where we are today. The highest land tax in the country. Your monthly electricity bill crosses the roof. We have had non -violent crimes that stand.”

“It was a failure, and it is a continuation of these policies,” he said.

The republican candidate for governor Jack Ciattarelli of New Jersey is for a digital interview Fox News, September 24, 2025 in Fort Lee, NJ (Paul Steinhauser – Fox News)

The latest public opinion polls suggest a close competition between Sherrill, a graduate of the American Naval Academy who was then helicopter pilot, and a former federal prosecutor, before winning the elections in the congress in 2018, and Ciattarelli, a former state legislator and a certified accountant who launched a medical publishing company before going into politics.

Ciattarelli said he would continue what he describes as a relentless country trail schedule.

Click here to obtain the Fox News app

“Every day, we touch four counties, we go out and talk about the way we will repair the New Jersey, and you have to press the flesh,” he said.

And he said that “my opponent did not do this, and she extended appearances on the left and right.”