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Monica Brinson
Monica Brinson (Republican Party) ran for election for Governor of New Jersey. She did not appear on the ballot for the Republican primary on June 10, 2025.
2025 battleground election
Ballotpedia identified the June 10 Republican primary as a battleground race. The summary below is from our coverage of this election, found here.
Jack Ciattarelli (R) defeated Bill Spadea and four other candidates in the June 10, 2025, Republican primary for governor of New Jersey.[1][2] Gov. Phil Murphy (D) was term-limited, meaning, the office was open. The last Republican governor was Chris Christie, who left office in 2018.
Rider University's Micah Rasmussen said, "It has been a long time since it’s been up for grabs, and so, all of our top figures on the Republican side and the Democratic side are finding this an irresistible race to jump at."[3]
Among Republicans, Ciattarelli, Spadea, and Jon Bramnick led in polling, endorsements, and fundraising.[4][5]
This was Ciattarelli's third run for governor. He first ran in 2017, when he lost in the Republican primary to Kim Guadagno. He won the Republican primary in 2021 and lost 51–48% to Murphy in the general election. Ciattarelli previously served on the Raritan Borough Council and the Somerset County Board of Commissioners before representing the 16th District of the New Jersey General Assembly.[6]
Ciattarelli's campaign website said, "When you compare the records of the announced and presumptive GOP gubernatorial candidates as individual vote-getters and party leaders, there is no comparison. By far, Jack Ciattarelli is superior."[7] President Donald Trump (R) endorsed Ciattarelli on May 12, 2025, writing on Truth Social, "Jack Ciattarelli is a WINNER, and has my Complete and Total Endorsement – HE WILL NOT LET YOU DOWN. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, ELECT JACK CIATTARELLI!"[8]
Bramnick represented District 21 of the New Jersey General Assembly from 2003 to 2022, when he was elected to the state Senate. In the former role, he served as Assembly minority leader. Bramnick began his legal career as an attorney in New York City.[9] He was a lawyer, a business law professor, and founded the law firm Bramnick, Rodriguez, Grabas & Woodruff.[10]
Before the 2024 presidential election, Bramnick said, "If Donald Trump wins New Jersey, I will absolutely withdraw. Because if that’s what New Jersey wants, I ain’t your guy."[11] His campaign website listed the economy, community safety, sustainable energy, preventing overdevelopment, education, healthcare, and government efficiency as key issues.[12]
Spadea was a radio host, most recently of the Bill Spadea Show.[13] He served in the U.S. Marine Corps and hosted Chasing News with Bill Spadea.[14] Spadea's first run for office was for New Jersey's 12th Congressional District in 2004. He also ran in a 2012 special election for a state Assembly seat.[14]
Spadea's campaign website listed illegal immigration, the economy, and infrastructure as priorities.[15] In a campaign ad, Spadea said, "I'm a real conservative, tough on immigration, and will cut taxes. As your governor, I will put you and New Jersey first."[16]
Justin Barbera, Hans Herberg, and Mario Kranjac also ran. Ed Durr (R) dropped out of the race and endorsed Spadea in March 2025.[17]
Elections
2025
See also: New Jersey gubernatorial and lieutenant gubernatorial election, 2025
General election
General election for Governor of New Jersey
Mikie Sherrill, Jack Ciattarelli, Vic Kaplan, and Joanne Kuniansky are running in the general election for Governor of New Jersey on November 4, 2025.
Candidate | ||
 | Mikie Sherrill (D) | |
 | Jack Ciattarelli (R) | |
 | Vic Kaplan (L) | |
| Joanne Kuniansky (Socialist Workers Party) | ||
| ||||
 = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Karen Zaletel (Independent)
- Lily Benavides (G)
- Stephen Zielinski (G)
- Gerardo Cedrone (Independent)
Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Governor of New Jersey
The following candidates ran in the Democratic primary for Governor of New Jersey on June 10, 2025.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Mikie Sherrill | 34.0 | 286,244 |
 | Ras Baraka | 20.7 | 173,951 | |
 | Steve Fulop | 16.0 | 134,573 | |
 | Josh Gottheimer | 11.6 | 97,384 | |
 | Sean Spiller | 10.6 | 89,472 | |
 | Stephen Sweeney | 7.1 | 59,811 | |
| Total votes: 841,435 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Republican primary election
Republican primary for Governor of New Jersey
The following candidates ran in the Republican primary for Governor of New Jersey on June 10, 2025.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Jack Ciattarelli | 67.8 | 316,283 |
 | Bill Spadea | 21.7 | 101,408 | |
 | Jon Bramnick | 6.2 | 29,130 | |
 | Mario Kranjac | 2.7 | 12,782 | |
 | Justin Barbera | 1.4 | 6,743 | |
 | Hans Herberg (Write-in) | 0.0 | 0 | |
| Total votes: 466,346 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- James Fazzone (R)
- Roger Bacon (R)
- Monica Brinson (R)
- Robert Canfield (R)
- Edward R. Durr (R)
Polls
- See also: Ballotpedia's approach to covering polls
Polls are conducted with a variety of methodologies and have margins of error or credibility intervals.[18] The Pew Research Center wrote, "A margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points at the 95% confidence level means that if we fielded the same survey 100 times, we would expect the result to be within 3 percentage points of the true population value 95 of those times."[19] For tips on reading polls from FiveThirtyEight, click here. For tips from Pew, click here.
The link below shows polls for this race aggregated by RealClearPolitics, where available.
| Gubernatorial election in New Jersey, 2025: Republican primary election polls | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Poll | Date |  Bacon
|
Barbera
|
Bramnick
|
Canfield
|
Ciattarrelli
|
Durr
|
Fazzone
|
Herberg
|
Kranjac
|
Spadea
|
Undecided/Other | Margin of error | Sample size[20] | Sponsor[21] |
| Emerson College | May 11-13, 2025 | - | 2% | 8% | - | 44% | - | - | - | 2% | 18% | 25%[22] | ± 5.4 | 330 LV | PIX11/The Hill |
| National Research Inc. | May 6-8, 2025 | - | - | 10% | - | 54% | - | - | - | 2% | 23% | 11%[23] | ± 4 | 600 LV | Jack Ciattarelli campaign |
| National Research Inc. | April 8-10, 2025 | - | - | 9% | - | 50% | - | - | - | 3% | 22% | 14%[24] | ± 4 | 600 LV | Jack Ciattarelli campaign |
| KA Consulting | Feb. 5-7, 2025 | - | - | 4% | - | 42% | 2% | - | - | 2% | 13% | 35%[25] | ± 4 | 600 LV | Kitchen Table Conservatives |
| Emerson College | Jan. 18-21, 2025 | 3% | - | 4% | 2% | 26% | 2% | 2% | 3% | - | 13% | 47%[26] | ± 5.3 | 334 LV | PIX11/The Hill |
| KA Consulting | June 12-14, 2024 | - | - | 3% | - | 44% | 2% | - | - | - | 11% | 38%[27] | ± 4 | 606 LV | Kitchen Table Conservatives |
Election campaign finance
This section contains campaign finance figures from candidates submitted to the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission in this election. It does not include information on spending by satellite groups. Click here to access those reports.
Satellite spending
- See also: Satellite spending
Satellite spending describes political spending not controlled by candidates or their campaigns; that is, any political expenditures made by groups or individuals that are not directly affiliated with a candidate. This includes spending by political party committees, super PACs, trade associations, and 501(c)(4) nonprofit groups.[28][29][30]
If available, this section includes links to online resources tracking satellite spending in this election. To notify us of a resource to add, email us.
Endorsements
Ballotpedia is gathering information about candidate endorsements. To send us an endorsement, click here.
Campaign themes
2025
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Monica Brinson did not complete Ballotpedia's 2025 Candidate Connection survey.
Campaign finance summary
Campaign finance information for this candidate is not yet available from OpenSecrets. That information will be published here once it is available.
See also
2025 Elections
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ New York Times, "New Jersey Governor Primary Election Results," accessed June 10, 2025
- ↑ Decision Desk HQ, "2025 New Jersey Primaries," accessed June 10, 2025
- ↑ NJ Spotlight News, "Early analysis of NJ’s gubernatorial race," November 14, 2024
- ↑ NJ.com, "Who’s leading the 2025 N.J. governor race? New poll shows who leads the crowded battle," January 23, 2025
- ↑ New Jersey Monitor, "New Jersey governor hopefuls have raised $15.6M so far," January 17, 2025
- ↑ New Jersey Monitor, "Republican Jack Ciattarelli launches long-anticipated run for governor," April 9, 2024
- ↑ Jack Ciattarelli 2025 campaign website, "Who can REALLY help Republicans win in 2025?" accessed January 31, 2025
- ↑ Truth Social, "Trump on May 12, 2025," accessed May 13, 2025
- ↑ Linkedin, "Jon Bramnick," accessed January 31, 2025
- ↑ Jon Bramnick 2025 campaign website, "Meet Jon Bramnick," accessed January 31, 2025
- ↑ Politico, "Independez," March 22, 2024
- ↑ Jon Bramnick 2025 campaign website, "Issues," accessed January 31, 2025
- ↑ Bill Spadea 2025 campaign website, "Meet Bill," accessed February 3, 2025
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 New Jersey Globe, "Bill Spadea will enter GOP governor’s race on June 17," June 7, 2024
- ↑ Bill Spadea 2025 campaign website, "Priorities for NJ," accessed February 3, 2025
- ↑ Instagram, "Bill Spadea on July 30, 2024," accessed February 3, 2025
- ↑ New Jersey Globe, "Durr ends bid for governor, endorses Spadea for GOP nod," March 24, 2025
- ↑ For more information on the difference between margins of error and credibility intervals, see explanations from the American Association for Public Opinion Research and Ipsos.
- ↑ Pew Research Center, "5 key things to know about the margin of error in election polls," September 8, 2016
- ↑ RV=Registered Voters
LV=Likely Voters - ↑ The sponsor is the person or group that funded all or part of the poll.
- ↑ Undecided: 23%, Someone else: 2%
- ↑ Undecided
- ↑ Undecided
- ↑ Undecided
- ↑ Undecided
- ↑ Undecided
- ↑ OpenSecrets.org, "Outside Spending," accessed December 12, 2021
- ↑ OpenSecrets.org, "Total Outside Spending by Election Cycle, All Groups," accessed December 12, 2021
- ↑ National Review.com, "Why the Media Hate Super PACs," December 12, 2021
