POMPTON LAKES, N.J. – 26th Legislative District hopeful Christian Barranco (R- Jefferson Township) is standing by his 2016 opinion that then-candidate Donald Trump should’ve spoken out against violence at his campaign rallies. At the time, the future Assembly candidate also said rally violence meant Trump shouldn’t be president.
Barranco, who works as a project manager for IBEW Local 102, made the remarks to NorthJersey.com back in March 2016. The article (which focused on New Jersey Rubio supporters as Trump became the inevitable 2016 nominee) included a quote from Barranco; he opposed a party elite-dominated brokered convention but nevertheless expressed his belief that Trump shouldn’t be president:
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But Christian Barranco of Pompton Lakes said it would be a mistake for the party to have a brokered convention, even though he said he did not think Trump should be president because of the violence that has taken place at some of his rallies.
“In the end, I believe in democracy, I believe in people speaking their minds and being heard, and it’s kind of sacrilege to have people say they want this guy and then have a group of elites say they don’t want this guy,” Barranco said.
Not unlike Trump himself, Barranco joined the GOP in the relatively recent past. In 2011, the future Assembly candidate ran as a Democrat for council in Pompton Lakes. He changed parties and ran unsuccessfully as a Republican for Passaic County freeholder in 2013. He was reported to be considering a bid for 2019 that didn’t come to fruition; he did briefly seek a Morris County freeholder seat in 2019 but left the contest right before a special convention.
Rally violence remains a controversial and unresolved topic from the historic 2016 contest. Trump critics on the Left and the Right accused the president of encouraging his supporters to use physical force against anti-Trump protesters; Trump supporters countered that not only was the violence narrative exaggerated but, where it actually occurred, Leftist agitators deserved the blame.
Reached for comment last week about the five-year old remarks, Barranco told me he ultimately voted for Trump in 2016 and again in 2020. He nevertheless stands by his original opinion.
“I can support my statement on violent protests without a problem,” said Barranco. “Donald Trump is not responsible for the violence but I thought he should have come out strongly against it which I believe he did so.”
It’s a four-way contest in LD26 this cycle between Barranco (who boasts the inaugural line in Morris), Assemblyman Jay Webber (endorsed in Morris), Betty Lou DeCroce (who has the line in Passaic and Essex), and Morris County Commissioner Tom Mastrangelo who is running without any significant institutional support.
LD26 is deep red so, as is the case in most New Jersey legislative districts, the primary is the “real” election. The district includes the Essex County municipalities of Fairfield, North Caldwell, Verona Township and West Caldwell in addition to the sole Passaic County outpost of West Milford but it’s dominated by a handful of Morris County towns: Butler, Jefferson Township (see above), Kinnelon, Lincoln Park, Montville, Morris Plains, Parsippany-Troy Hills and Rockaway Township.
Insiders believe Webber is the clear frontrunner for one of the two seats and that it’s really a two-way fight between DeCroce and Barranco for the second nomination.
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