
Trump-backed Jack Ciattarelli wins GOP NJ Governor primary, CNN projects
CNN
Jack Ciattarelli will win the Republican gubernatorial primary in New Jersey, according to a projection from the CNN Decision Desk. His victory was propelled by President Donald Trump’s endorsement and sets him up for another chance at leading the Garden State after losing narrowly four years ago.
Jack Ciattarelli will win the Republican gubernatorial primary in New Jersey, according to a projection from the CNN Decision Desk. His victory was propelled by President Donald Trump’s endorsement and sets him up for another chance at leading the Garden State after losing narrowly four years ago. Ciattarelli, a former state representative, beat a field of Republican contenders including former radio host Bill Spadea and state Sen. Jon Bramnick. While New Jersey shifted toward Trump last November, the state has a track record in recent decades of picking candidates from the party that lost the White House the year before. One exception is Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy’s narrow reelection victory against Ciattarelli in 2021 by less than 4 points.Whether Ciattarelli can be successful in November will likely depend on his ability to turn out voters loyal to Trump while also expanding support with people who have not embraced the president and his agenda. “He endorsed me because of the coattails – he endorsed me because I’m the only person who can beat the Democrats in November,” Ciattarelli said of Trump’s support at the Republicans’ final debate. Support for Trump was a point of contention in advertisements and during feisty debates. Ciattarelli and Spadea repeatedly sparred over their allegiance to the president, seizing on past criticisms they had each leveled at Trump at various points in their long record of public commentary. “Bill Spadea attacks Donald Trump,” intoned one ad from Ciattarelli, seizing on soundbites of Spadea suggesting Trump shouldn’t run in 2024. “Loyalty matters to President Trump,” Spadea said in one of his ads, replaying comments from Ciattarelli criticizing Trump amid his rise during the 2016 campaign.

Hundreds of Border Patrol officers are mobilizing to bolster the president’s crackdown on immigration in snowy Minneapolis, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Sunday, as tensions between federal law enforcement and local counterparts flare after an ICE-involved shooting last week left a mother of three dead.

Nationwide outcry over the killing of a Minneapolis woman by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent spilled into the streets of cities across the US on Saturday, with protesters demanding the removal of federal immigration authorities from their communities and justice for the slain Renee Good.

Since early December the US Coast Guard and other military branches have boarded and taken control of five oil ships that had previously been sanctioned, all either accused of being in the process of transporting Venezuelan oil or on their way to take on oil that has been subject to US sanctions since President Donald Trump began a pressure campaign against the leadership of the country during his first term.










