Primary day in NJ governor's race may offer hints on how voters feel about Trump

New Jersey voters on Tuesday will settle the Democratic and Republican primaries for governor in a contest that could send signals about how the public is responding to President Donald Trump's agenda and how Democratic voters think their leaders should push back.

New Jersey is one of just two states with a race for governor this year — the other is Virginia — and the fact two-term Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy is term-limited has created fresh drama for the open seat. Murphy, who became the first Democrat to be reelected in more than four decades in 2021, hasn't endorsed a successor in the primary.

There's a six-way race on the Democratic side that features several seasoned political figures. Trump’s endorsement of former state lawmaker Jack Ciattarelli may have given him a boost on the Republican side, where he faces four primary challengers.

Polls are open from 6 a.m. until 8 p.m. Tuesday, but it's not the only day of voting. Early in-person voting was held from June 3-8. Mail-in ballots were sent to voters beginning in April.

The contest hinges in part on New Jersey issues, including high property taxes and the soaring cost of living, but national politics are sure to figure in. Trump, who has long had a strong presence in New Jersey, waded into the race with his endorsement, attacking Democratic control of state government. Democrats are looking for a winning message and leadership after the sting of bitter losses in 2024.

"Because these are the first major elections since Donald Trump’s return to the White House, there’s a tremendous amount at stake simply through public perception," said Ben Dworkin, director of the Rowan Institute for Public Policy & Citizenship.

For Democrats? “They'll just get further in a hole if they don't hold this seat,” he said.

For Republicans? They could win because New Jersey tends to be purple during gubernatorial years, Dworkin said, but that would be viewed as a tremendous victory for Trump.

Who are NJ governor candidates in 2025?

Democratic candidates for NJ governor

The race for the Democratic nomination for governor features a crowded field of prominent current and former officeholders: U.S. Reps. Josh Gottheimer and Mikie Sherrill, Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, New Jersey Education Association president and former Montclair Mayor Sean Spiller and former state Senate President Steve Sweeney.

Gottheimer has had a slight edge in fundraising, with about $9.1 million in contributions, followed by Sherrill and Fulop, each with about $8.9 million raised for their campaigns. But Sherrill appeared to have a narrow lead in many polls, followed by Gotteheimer, Fulop and Baraka.

Immigration has been a major issue in the campaign. In May, the state’s top federal prosecutor dropped a trespassing case against Baraka, who was arrested earlier in the month at a protest outside a new federal immigration detention center.

Republican candidates for NJ governor

In the Republican primary, former state Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli makes his third attempt for the state’s highest office. He had a strong showing as the 2021 Republican nominee against Murphy, coming within about 3 percentage points of unseating the Democratic incumbent. He also ran in 2017 but lost the nomination to then-Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno.

Also seeking the Republican nomination Tuesday are state Sen. Jon Bramnick, former Englewood Cliffs Mayor Mario Kranjac, talk radio host Bill Spadea and general contractor Justin Barbera.

President Donald Trump has been a key figure in the primary, as he has been in other GOP contests across the country in recent years. He endorsed Ciattarelli in May and campaigned for him in a virtual rally on Monday, despite the candidate having said in 2015 that he was not fit to serve as president.

Bramnick is the only current Trump critic in this year's GOP primary field.

Aside from Bramnick, all the other GOP candidates declared their support for the president's agenda, pressing for a state-level version of the Trump administration's Department of Government Efficiency. They've also said they would end so-called sanctuary policies and, in a New Jersey-specific pitch, called for the end of the state's 2020 law banning single-use plastic bags.

Ciattarelli has said he would sign an order on his first day in office ending New Jersey's Immigrant Trust Directive, which bars local police from cooperating with federal officials on civil immigration matters. He has also said he would direct whomever he names attorney general to end lawsuits against the Trump administration, including a case aimed at stopping the president's order ending birthright citizenship for people whose parents were in the country illegally.

The state’s most populous counties — Bergen, Middlesex, Essex and Hudson — tend to play a larger role in Democratic primaries than in Republican primaries. For example, Essex County, which is home to heavily Democratic Newark, had the largest turnout in the last competitive Democratic primary for governor in 2017, but it did not crack the top 15 counties in the last competitive Republican primary in 2021. That year, Ciattarelli received just shy of a majority of the Republican primary vote. He was the top vote-getter in all 21 counties and nearly doubled the vote count of his nearest competitor. The counties that contributed the most Republican primary votes that year were Ocean, Morris and Monmouth.

Other races

Further down the ballot, all 80 state General Assembly seats are up for election this year, although only 25 districts face contested races. Primary voters may select up to two candidates per district, and each race will have two winners. Democrats have a lopsided majority in the chamber.

State Senate seats will not be up for election until 2027. Some voters in Bergen and Passaic counties in northern New Jersey will pick nominees for a special state Senate election in District 35, although neither the Democratic nor Republican primary is contested. Democrats also have a decisive majority in the state Senate.