Republican Jack Ciattarelli spent part of a recent rally in Wildwood, New Jersey, tossing bright red “Make NJ Great Again” hats to supporters in the crowd.

To become the state’s next governor, Ciattarelli needs voters who have long donned “Make America Great Again” hats to head to the polls in three weeks, too.

The New Jersey race is one of the first major tests of President Donald Trump’s second term for Republicans looking to turn out Trump voters when he is not on the ballot. New Jersey and Virginia are the only two states with governor’s races this year, and Ciattarelli is the only candidate for governor with Trump’s endorsement.

Republicans have struggled to turn out the president’s supporters in off-year and midterm elections, including in a number of special elections so far in 2025. And these voters could be key to Ciattarelli’s path to victory.

“They’re extremely important,” said New Jersey GOP strategist Mike DuHaime, a former Republican National Committee political director. He noted Trump won around 700,000 more votes in 2024 than Ciattarelli when he lost to Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy by 3 points in 2021.

”If you can turn out 100,000 of those, that could be the difference,” DuHaime, said later adding, “It’s a very big, important opportunity.”

“They’re certainly a big part of our calculus,” Ciattarelli campaign strategist Chris Russell said of Trump voters.

Appealing to Trump voters could risk alienating the decisive independent voters in New Jersey, whom Trump still lost by 6 points in 2024, despite making significant gains compared to the 2020 election. But it’s a risk Republicans seem willing to take.

“If your No. 1 issue is Donald Trump and your disdain of Donald Trump, then you’re never voting for the Republican anyway,” said DuHaime, who has worked as a chief strategist for former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

Ciattarelli has largely embraced the president, but last week’s debate with Democratic Rep. Mikie Sherrill underscored how he is still navigating Trump in the Democratic-leaning state.

Ciattarelli declined to say whether he considered himself part of the MAGA movement, saying instead, “I’m part of the New Jersey movement. We need change in New Jersey.”

Less than five minutes later, Ciattarelli gave Trump an “A” grade, noting, “I think he’s right about everything that he’s doing. He has secured the border and the economy, we’ve got inflation is much lower than it was when Joe Biden was in the White House.”

“Amazing. I think that tells us all we need to know about who Jack Ciattarelli’s supporting,” Sherrill responded, adding that she gave Trump an “F.”

GOP test

Ciattarelli has been making appeals to Trump voters since winning a contested primary with Trump’s endorsement. Ciattarelli said during the primary that he would welcome Trump to the state to campaign for him, after not doing so in 2021.

So far, Trump has not yet campaigned for Ciattarelli, and it’s not clear if he will make an appearance in the Garden State before Election Day.

“We’re looking at every opportunity to see what brings value to the campaign,” Ciattarelli told reporters after last week’s debate when asked if he was hoping to rally with Trump, noting the White House has told his campaign it is “happy to help.”

It’s unclear whether or when there will be a Trump rally, but the national GOP has been engaged in the race.

Restore NJ, an outside group tied to the Republican Governors Association, has spent $11.3 million on ads through Election Day, according to the ad-tracking firm AdImpact. A group backed by the Democratic Governors Association has spent $26.5 million.

RNC spokeswoman Kiersten Pels said in a statement that the committee “has been on the ground in New Jersey for months, making investments to safeguard election integrity and mobilize voters.”

The committee has organized volunteer poll workers and attorneys, sent out “get-out-the-vote” texts and emails, and sued over the state’s voter rolls and a county’s ballot design. The Ciattarelli campaign and the state GOP are also using the RNC’s “VotePro” digital mobilization tool to target voters with specific messages.

Bernards Township Mayor Janice Fields, one of New Jersey’s RNC members, said the national party engagement is a marked shift from Ciattarelli’s 2021 race.

”The difference is [Ciattarelli] doesn’t have to ask. They’re asking him, ‘What can I do to help?’” Fields said.

Fields and other New Jersey Republicans say that enthusiasm has also extended to Trump voters. Ciattarelli has been targeting urban areas where Trump made gains last year with visits during his 2025 campaign.

“I think those voters see a state that’s in the wrong direction, a candidate who is now a known quantity and a campaign that is well funded and aggressive. They see someone who can win,” Russell, the Ciattarelli strategist, said. “More than any factor, that is something that can motivate these voters.”

Embracing Trump

Some New Jersey Republicans say Ciattarelli’s embrace of Trump could boost him among Trump voters, a key difference from his race four years ago.

“In 2021, he wasn’t totally in Trump’s corner and I think that hurt him in some areas,” said George Gilmore, the GOP chairman in Ocean County, which delivered the most votes for Trump of any New Jersey county last year — around 80,000 more than for Ciattarelli in 2021.

“Although in the past, Ciattarelli had been critical of Trump and his policies, I think you saw a turn on that this past year where he’s expressed extreme support for Trump,” said Gilmore, who received a pardon from Trump in 2021 for a tax fraud conviction. Gilmore backed Ciattarelli’s primary opponent Bill Spadea but is now supporting the GOP nominee.

Ciattarelli’s evolution on Trump has in some ways mirrored the broader Republican Party. During Trump’s first presidential run, Ciattarelli called Trump a “charlatan” and said he was unfit to be president. He kept some distance from Trump after the Jan.. 6, 2021, Capitol attack, not campaigning with Trump during that year’s gubernatorial race. But Ciattarelli has now embraced Trump and broadly supported his policies.

One New Jersey Republican strategist, granted anonymity to speak candidly about the race, said Trump’s endorsement could help counter any lingering concerns among Trump’s loyal supporters, but Ciattarelli might still have some work to do to win them over.

”They’re just still a little gun-shy. Could he get those folks back? I think so,” the strategist said. “It’s going to take work and effort.”

Ciattarelli put some of that work in over the weekend when he appeared at a Wildwood rally organized by the Cape May County GOP, where Trump also rallied with his supporters last year. The event featured some controversial conservative figures such as Jack Posobiec and Benny Johnson. DGA spokesperson Olivia Davis accused Ciattarelli of “standing shoulder to shoulder with some of the far right’s most extreme and dangerous personalities.”

“I can’t control what other people say and I think I’m judged by what it is that I say. And what I say is the crises that have New Jerseyans, particularly in the middle class, getting crushed every day,” Ciattarelli told reporters after last week’s debate when asked about the rally speakers.

The rally underscored Ciattarelli’s appeals to lower-propensity Trump voters, who fueled Trump’s gains in the state last year. Those gains differed from Ciattarelli’s gains in 2021, according to an analysis from NBC News’ Steve Kornacki, with Ciattarelli performing well in wealthier, more highly educated and whiter parts of the state, while Trump improved in more diverse areas of the state with more working-class voters and people who do not have college degrees.

The challenge for Ciattarelli moving forward is finding a way to hold onto voters he won more than four years ago, while also turning out Trump’s voters.

“It’s a difficult trick and it’s why winning as a Republican in New Jersey is very hard,” DuHaime, the GOP strategist, said. “You have to figure out a way to do both.”