Save Jersey has confirmed with a senior campaign source that Jack Ciattarelli has selected Morris County sheriff Jim Gannon to serve as his lieutenant governor running mate.
The veteran law enforcement official spent years as a police officer in Boonton before beginning his tenure as sheriff in 2017. Gannon is popular in Morris, a formerly rock solid Republican county which has become a little more swingy as of late due to the realignment of the state’s affluent, “educated” suburbs; Morris went for Biden in 2020, the first time a Democrat had prevailed there since 1964, but it swung back to Trump in 2024. Ciattarelli undoubtedly hopes that Gannon’s addition on the ticket will help reinforce the GOP’s electoral position in vote-rich Morris.
Law and order issues also remain front and center in Election 2025, another likely argument in favor of the veteran law man as the parties’ respective nominees prepare to do battle over Sanctuary Statehood and other criminal justice concerns.
Gannon generated a few headlines in 2022 for an off-duty act of heroism when he helped subdue an unruly man at the airport while on a Disney vacation with his grandchildren.
The campaign’s formal rollout is expected on Wednesday in Boonton.
There’s a brief but significant history of sheriffs on statewide tickets. Chris Christie chose then-Monmouth Sheriff Kim Guadagno to serve as his running mate twice, in 2009 and again for the 2013 reelection cycle.
