PLAINFIELD, N.J. — As voter Wendy David began to explain why she is supporting Newark Mayor Ras Baraka for governor in New Jersey, she stopped midsentence.
“I’ll just be frank,” the Plainfield Democrat told NBC News. “I feel Ras can stand up against Trump and protect us.”
David isn’t alone. In conversations with nearly 40 New Jersey Democratic voters in recent days, a common theme emerged: Many New Jersey Democrats are looking to support a candidate for governor in Tuesday’s primary who will forcefully push back against President Donald Trump.
And the six Democratic hopefuls have been making their cases against Trump on the airwaves and on the campaign trail.
“This fight in New Jersey is a national fight,” Baraka told supporters, including David, gathered in a backyard here on a recent Saturday evening.
“As I keep telling everybody, we have a first opportunity to clap back against what Donald Trump is doing,” Baraka later added.
That emphasis on Trump underscores how the president is looming over the New Jersey race, one of two governor’s races this year, and shaping the primaries for both parties.
On the Republican side, Trump helped cement former state legislator Jack Ciattarelli’s front-runner status when he endorsed him last month. Ciattarelli still has to win a contested primary Tuesday, and he has been sure to remind Republicans that he has the president’s support, recently launching a TV ad touting the endorsement.
The Democratic primary is more uncertain, with six well-funded candidates representing different paths for their party. Trump has affected that race, too, with each of the contenders trying to make the case to Democratic voters that they would take on the president.
Pledging to fight
Baraka, though, has cast himself as the candidate who walks the walk when it comes to fighting Trump.
“I think people are clear on the fact that we’re going to fight Donald Trump and his policies,” Baraka told NBC News in a phone interview. “I don’t think that that is a doubt in people’s mind that we’ve always done that, and we will continue to do that, and [it’s] not just lip service.”
Baraka is suing New Jersey U.S. Attorney Alina Habba, a Trump ally and appointee, alleging that his constitutional rights were violated when he was arrested last month at a federal immigration detention facility. The charges were dropped, but the moment captured national attention and was a flashpoint in the primary race.
“For someone who is willing to stand up for convictions and go and try to do something about it, you got my vote,” said Phillipsburg resident Ginamaria Gino, 55, who said Baraka’s arrest moved her to support him in the primary.
Other candidates have also focused on Trump as they make their pitches to voters. According to AdImpact, two-thirds of the TV ads from Democratic candidates and outside groups in the race have mentioned the president.
The include the more moderate candidates in the race, like Rep. Josh Gottheimer, who has centered his campaign on lowering the state’s high cost of living. Gottheimer’s first TV ad used artificial intelligence to show him sparring with Trump in a boxing ring.
“I’ve not been afraid to fight with people who screw with us, whether that’s Trump or whoever,” Gottheimer told NBC News after rallying with supporters in Woodcliff Lake.
Rep. Mikie Sherrill, who some consider the front-runner, has also talked about taking on Trump.
“Having a strong state government, a strong state governor, to really nimbly fight back, I think, is the most effective way,” Sherrill told NBC News before marching in the Asbury Park Pride parade. “I saw that in his last administration. And I would say that has become even more apparent in this administration, as you see the governors really coming up with the battle plan, if you will, to fight back.”
Some Sherrill supporters are backing her in part because they see her as the best equipped to take on Trump, given her background as a Navy helicopter pilot and a federal prosecutor.
“We need somebody tough,” said Linda Perla, a 76-year-old retired school administrator from Mays Landing.
A deciding factor
JoAnn of Cranford, who declined to share her last name, was undecided between Sherrill and Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop when she went to see Fulop at the community center in her town on a recent Saturday afternoon. She said her top priority was supporting a candidate who would combat Trump.
JoAnn asked Fulop how he would protect the state from “evil in Washington.” He said he plans to use the state’s surplus to counter cuts to federal programs and keep state Attorney General Matt Platkin in place given his ongoing lawsuits against the Trump administration.
Fulop also said he would push to enshrine certain measures into law to protect targeted communities, noting he supports the Immigrant Trust Act, which would codify limits on state and local law authorities’ cooperation with federal immigration officials.
Fulop won her over, and JoAnn left the meet-and-greet planning to vote for him, saying, “He actually has an action plan.”
Former Montclair Mayor Sean Spiller, the president of the state’s teachers union, also pointed to the Immigrant Trust Act as a way to push back on Trump, and he told NBC News after having participated in the Asbury Park Pride parade that he also plans to fight Trump by “using the strong attorney general to stand up for folks with New Jersey laws, and using the bully pulpit.”
Eyes on November
These Democrats aren’t expected to stop talking about Trump once the primary is over.
Sherrill previewed a possible case against Ciattarelli by tying him to the president, recently launching a TV ad that warns, “MAGA’s coming for New Jersey with Trump-endorsed Republican Jack Ciattarelli.”
“He said he’s not going to stand up to Trump on anything,” Sherrill said of Ciattarelli during a primary debate last month.
Sherrill and some of the Democratic hopefuls also said that the New Jersey governor’s race will be viewed nationally as a sign of how voters are responding to Trump’s second administration.
“If we do our job and win in November in the way we know we can, and bring people out to vote, that is really, I think, a crack in the facade of MAGA,” Sherrill said at a recent meet-and-greet in Watchung, “and a huge indictment about how people in this country are feeling right now.”
But one of the Democratic hopefuls said that to win in November, the party should at least be open to working with Trump. The president did make gains in the state last year, losing New Jersey by 6 points, a 10-point improvement on his margin in 2020.
Steve Sweeney, the former president of the state Senate, pointed to a recent Emerson College poll that found a slight majority of registered voters in New Jersey (53%) want the next governor to work with Trump, while 47% want the next governor to stand up to the Trump administration. (The survey, conducted May 11-13, reported a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.)
“You just can’t be a partisan and stand up and say, ‘I’m against everything.’” Sweeney said after a recent press conference in Camden. “What if — I’m not expecting anything positive from this president — but what if he came up with something that was good? I’m not going to fight him. I’m going to work with him when there’s something that makes sense.”
But asked if there were any current issues where he could work with Trump, Sweeney simply answered: “No.”
