SUSSEX COUNTY, NJ – New Jersey GOP Party Chairman Doug Steinhardt has announced his campaign for the office of Governor of New Jersey. Steinhardt will challenge current front runner Jack Ciattarelli in the June 2021 primary election. Ciattarelli has come under fire for abandoning President Donald J. Trump during his re-election bid but Steinhardt says he won’t run.
“We’ve all been paying the price since Phil Murphy rolled out his fancy video four years ago,” Steinhardt said.
“Instead of Murphy making spending cuts to get the state back on track, we’re the ones making tough choices,” Steinhardt said. “Like how do we pay our mortgage or put our kids through college? How do we pay for the medicines that we need?”
Steinhardt has been a vocal critic of Governor Phil Murphy during his first term as Governor. In his video to announce his candidacy, Steinhardt took a shot at Ciattarelli, saying that the former Assemblyman ran away from the President when things got tough. In 2016, Ciattarelli called President Trump a “charlatan” and declaring that Trump was unfit to become President of the United States.
“Any time one puts their name on the ballot for any office, it’s a big decision. But when I looked at this campaign for governor, I was concerned that conservatives didn’t have a pro-life candidate on the ballot,” Steinhardt said. “I was concerned that gun owners didn’t have a Second Amendment champion on the ballot. And I was concerned that we didn’t have someone on the ballot who has supported President Trump from the start, during good times and bad. That’s when the decision to run became a whole lot easier.”
The field for Governor now has several candidates. Steinhardt’s opponents are lining up to be Ciatarelli, 2020 U.S. Senate Candidate Hirsh Singh and 2017 gubernatorial candidate Joseph Rullo.
