New Jersey's GOP Primary for Governor Could Pivot on Trump, a Part-Time Resident

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

58% : The last three Republicans elected governor -- Thomas Kean Sr., Christine Todd Whitman and Chris Christie -- all won two consecutive terms.
54% : Anticipating how much value Trump could add to the campaign when voters cast their primary ballots is guesswork, with circumstances changing by the day.
50% : "The residents and citizens and taxpayers of New Jersey need a governor with fixed values and beliefs, and that's me -- in terms of everything that I stand for and that President Trump stands for," he said in a phone interview.
42% : Mario Kranjac, the former two-term mayor of the suburban New York City town of Englewood Cliffs and a recent entrant into the race, said he thinks he is the most Trump-aligned candidate because he never wavered in his support for Trump during the president's first term.
36% : "Donald Trump is the X factor in this GOP primary," said Ben Dworkin, director of the Rowan Institute for Public Policy & Citizenship.
34% : Trump, who built his brand as an Atlantic City casino owner and still owns property in New Jersey, including the Bedminster golf club, narrowed the margin between 2020 and 2024 but still lost the state, and Democrats maintain firm control.
33% : "I think they're missing the lesson of the 2024 election in New Jersey, which is Donald Trump did exceedingly well in New Jersey," he said.
29% : Both Spadea and Jack Ciattarelli, the 2021 GOP nominee for governor who lost by roughly three percentage points to term-limited Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy, have said critical things of Trump in the past, but both have embraced him lately.
27% : "He doesn't want to use the word endorse because he doesn't want to get ahead of President Trump," Kush said.
25% : That may explain why one Republican candidate, state Sen. Jon Bramnick, has criticized Trump over his pardons for those involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, and why two other leading contenders have sought the president's support without much fanfare.
21% : "They shouldn't have to worry that when something happens, their candidate is going to abandon President Trump, which I would never do.

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