TRENTON, N.J. – There’s officially a race for the 2021 GOP gubernatorial nomination. As first reported by the New Jersey Globe, NJGOP Chairman Doug Steinhardt filed papers on Wednesday night for next year’s primary. Steinhardt’s entry has been expected for months.
Meanwhile, on Thursday morning, the campaign of Steinhardt’s main opponent Jack Ciattarelli – who has been running hard for over a year – announced that they’ve raised more than $1 million in 2020 and will qualift for over $1.7 million in state matching funds.
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“I couldn’t be prouder of the effort put forth by Jack and our entire finance team over the past 11 months to hit this milestone,” said Ciattarelli Finance Chairman Jeff Vanderbeek. “Despite a pandemic that limited in-person events and a respectful deference to our GOP congressional candidates on the ballot throughout 2020, we’ve hit our goals. With the pending state match, we are very well-positioned to begin 2021 just as we did 2020 – as the frontrunner in this race and the only Republican candidate who can defeat Phil Murphy, fix our state, and revitalize the NJGOP.”
A third candidate is perennial candidate Hirsh Singh of Atlantic County.
All three men hope to take on and defeat incumbent Democrat Governor Phil Murphy in 2021, a leading proponent of COVID-19 lockdowns. During Murphy’s tenure, thousands died needlessly in New Jersey nursing homes due to a Murphy Administrative directive in spring 2020 warning against screening for positive admissions. What’s more, 31% of the state’s small businesses have closed permanently.
