June 06, 2025
Danielle Parhizkaran/USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
New Jersey's 11 gubernatorial candidates have collected endorsements from unions, celebrities and politicians, including President Donald Trump. The support could influence the primary elections on Tuesday, June 10. This photo shows the seal of New Jersey on the rotunda floor in the Trenton statehouse.
The 11 candidates running to become New Jersey's next governor have a head-spinning list of people endorsing them, everyone from union leaders to celebrities and powerful politicians to obscure municipal officials.
While endorsements typically do little to change election outcomes, political observers say they matter more in crowded primary races like New Jersey's, where they can sway undecided voters or serve as a tipping point in tight contests. The primaries are on Tuesday, June 10.
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"Voters who are less familiar with the candidates and less informed about the race may use endorsements and establishment support as a guidepost," said Alyssa Maurice, head of research at the William J. Hughes Center for Public Policy at Stockton University. "But for voters who are very engaged and rallied around a preferred candidate, an endorsement is not going to change their mind. It's not going to be a game-changer."
Engaged voters likely will be the only people who bother to vote in Tuesday's primaries, with a recent Rutgers-Eagleton poll showing most registered voters aren't even aware an election is approaching.
A low turnout could give endorsements more weight than they'd otherwise have and narrow slim margins between candidates in toss-up races, said Micah Rasmussen, director of the Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics at Rider University.
In the race to replace Gov. Phil Murphy, former Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli is considered the front-runner of five candidates in the GOP primary, while the six-candidate Democratic race remains wide open.
"In a low-turnout primary, where a small number of votes can shape the electorate, every group of votes matters," Rasmussen said. "Low turnout magnifies the effects of real endorsements that actually drive votes."
Endorsements only drive votes if they're backed up with money and canvassing to publicize them and deliver voters to the ballot box, he said.
Some groups have proven especially adept at both, he added. He pointed to the Vaad in Lakewood, an influential coalition of Orthodox Jewish rabbis whose mobilizing helped Assemblyman Avi Schnall topple a four-term incumbent in 2023.
"They have like a high-tech phone tree where they make sure everybody knows, and everybody votes. That is an endorsement that very much matters. There's no question that's going to translate into votes," Rasmussen said.
The Vaad endorsed Ciattarelli and Rep. Josh Gottheimer, a Democrat, for governor in the upcoming primaries.
The New Jersey Education Association, the union that represents about 200,000 teachers statewide, is another group whose endorsement carries weight – largely because teachers, like most college graduates, tend to vote more faithfully than other demographics, Rasmussen added.
Sean Spiller, one of the six Democrats vying to become governor, landed that endorsement easily – he's the union's president.
"They're putting huge political capital into this endorsement, and I would argue that Spiller's candidacy wouldn't even exist if it wasn't for the NJEA endorsement," Rasmussen said. "It's completely symbiotic, in their case, they're joined at the hip. So there is very likely to be a lot of understanding among teachers in New Jersey of that endorsement."
Endorsements can cut both ways, he said. He noted that most of the campaign cash boosting Spiller's bid is funded by an outside group backed by teachers' dues, which irritated some union members and could make the endorsement backfire at the ballot box.
George Norcross' endorsement of Democrat Steve Sweeney, the former Senate president, also raised some eyebrows. While many political candidates would want the powerful South Jersey Democratic power broker's backing, Norcross has plenty of critics, especially since he was indicted last year for racketeering (a judge dismissed the charges in February).
Democrat Steve Fulop also has sought to make rival Rep. Mikie Sherrill's endorsements "double-edged swords" by denigrating her as the establishment candidate, Rasmussen said. She has collected endorsements from party committees around the state.
"He's trying to make them into a liability, a sign that he's the unbossed candidate, he's the candidate that's building a new way of doing things," Rasmussen said.
Otherwise, endorsements largely align with the candidate's politics and signal something about them, Maurice said. Mayor Ras Baraka, a Democrat, won the support of progressive groups like the New Jersey Working Families Party.
"Everyone has their unique lane, and I think their endorsements reflect that lane that they've chosen to run on," she said. "Sherrill won the most local endorsement contests with establishment Democrats, and institutional support. Sweeney has his South Jersey support. Baraka and Fulop have support from the anti-establishment or progressive groups. Spiller obviously has the teachers union."
The timing of endorsements also matters, Rasmussen and Maurice agreed.
President Donald Trump endorsed Mendham Mayor Christine Serrano Glassner in her bid last year for U.S. Senate, but the endorsement came long before he was reelected, as he fought corruption charges in Manhattan. Serrano Glassner lost in the GOP primary to Republican Curtis Bashaw, who then lost in the general election to Democrat Andy Kim, now New Jersey's junior senator.
Since Trump's reelection, the Republican candidates vying for governor – aside from Sen. Jon Bramnick, a longtime anti-Trumper – battled fiercely for both his endorsement and the support of his devotees (Ciattarelli won Trump's support). Whichever GOP candidate wins the primary, though, that strategy will likely change for November's election, Maurice said.
"That candidate is going to have to walk a tightrope when it comes to Trump and how much to align himself with the President," she said. "The effect of a Trump endorsement in the general will really depend on the political mood come November, because a lot can change, so time will tell."
Other notable endorsements in the governor's race include:
• Ras Baraka: Reps. Bonnie Watson Coleman and LaMonica McIver, Make the Road Action New Jersey, New Jersey Citizen Action, the Good Government Coalition of New Jersey, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee
• Jon Bramnick: The Philadelphia Inquirer, former House Speaker John Boehner
• Jack Ciattarelli: The New Jersey State Retired Police and Firemen's Association and Alan Gottlieb (Second Amendment Foundation founder and Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms board chair)
• Steve Fulop: College Democrats of New Jersey, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Progressive Change Campaign Committee
• Josh Gottheimer: Assemblyman Gary Schaer, guitarist Stevie Van Zandt
• Mario Kranjac (Republican candidate): Newt Gingrich and Curtis Sliwa (founder of the Guardian Angels)
• Mikie Sherrill: Former tennis star Billie Jean King, Sierra Club, Maine Gov. Janet Mills
• Bill Spadea (Republican candidate): Right to Life (state and national)
• Steve Sweeney: Reps. Donald Norcross and Herb Conaway and about 25 union chapters
New Jersey Monitor is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. New Jersey Monitor maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Terrence T. McDonald for questions: [email protected].
Disclosures: Norcross is the father of PhillyVoice founder and chairwoman Lexie Norcross, and U.S. Rep. Donald Norcross is Lexie Norcorss' uncle.
