Long-time Trump adviser, former campaign manager for the president, and veteran New Jersey pollster Kellyanne Conway believes Donald Trump is likely to wade into this year’s New Jersey Republican gubernatorial primary, and she thinks the 2021 nominee Jack Ciattarelli is the favorite for that honor.
Conway thinks it’s a matter of when, not if, POTUS wades into the Garden State contest.
“I think the odds are that he does. If I were a betting woman, I’d say that he endorses and he endorses Ciattarelli,” Conway told a small gaggle of journalists on Friday at a Zoom presser that included Save Jersey.
“It’s the timing that is the surprise,” Conway added. “The fact that he takes this seriously is a tell. It’s why he hasn’t endorsed yet, and he knows that that ultimately will turn the race one way or the other.”
Conway is presently serving as an advisor for the Super pac “Kitchen Table Conservatives” which has spent considerable resources roasting Ciattarelli’s prime primary opponent, Bill Spadea, over his past criticisms of Donald Trump and changed positions on issues including immigration enforcement.
Interest in a possible Trump enforcement was heightened when, last month, both Ciattarelli and Spadea had audiences with the President at his Bedminster golf club. Ciattarelli was afforded an extended sit-down with the President and Elon Musk who was also present; Spadea reportedly had a briefer encounter which, unlike Ciattarelli’s visit, did not end in photo which the Trump team approved for release.
In her comments analyzing a hypothetical endorsement decision, Conway emphasized that the president tends to consider not just loyalty but also which candidate “is putting in the work” in deciding who to endorse.
“I thought that Ciattarelli made the strongest case for a Trump endorsement on his own that anybody could have made from what I heard,” Conway explained.
President Trump does have a history of wading into New Jersey races; most recently, he issued an 11th hour endorsement of Christine Glassner for U.S. Senate during last spring’s massive Wildwood beach rally. Glassner, who failed to raise a significant amount of dollars for her campaign, was unable to capitalize on Trump’s endorsement in the time remaining.
Trump appeared on Spadea’s former NJ 101.5 radio program shortly prior to the May 2024 rally and strongly praised the host for his past support and also criticized Ciattarelli, inferring that the frontrunner could have done better in 2021 had he more strongly embraced Trump.
This year’s dynamics may be different, however, in ways that give Ciattarelli an edge; for example, Kitchen Table Conservatives are spending big money on ads impeaching Spadea with his past commentary (e.g. arguing that Trump had “failed” in challenging the Deep State and suggested he shouldn’t seek the 2024 presidential nomination). Meanwhile, Spadea is positioned to be badly out-spent by Ciattarelli in the lead-up to the June 10th primary, and therefore arguably needs Trump’s formal blessing in order to compensate for a steady drumbeat of direct and third party media buys from the Ciattarelli side of the party divide.
