Dissecting the NJGOP

An essay on New Jersey Republican leadership.

Oct 30, 2022

The most sensational political rally that I have ever attended was the 2020 Wildwood Trump Rally in South, New Jersey. From the moment I pulled off the exit on the Garden State Parkway, I noticed Patriotism, and I loved it. There was a sea of Americans throughout the entire city, brigades of automobiles and a convoy of helicopters accompanying the 45th President of the United States. This political rally was not only to assist Donald J. Trump in his second Presidential election, but it was also an opportunity for the New Jersey Republican Party (NJGOP) to invigorate a new decade of growth. In New Jersey, one million more Democrats are registered to vote than Republicans (1). That’s why NJGOP Chairman Doug Steinhardt, “pitched a Big tent, [where] there is no secret handshake to get in.” (2)

In my experience, this “Big tent” olive branch was afforded to former Democrats and particular Independents. Political factions leaving the “Democrat plantation”, such as the BLEXIT (Blacks Exit), LEXIT (Latinos Exit) and JEXIT (Jews Exit) movements have pollenated the Republican Party with a crosswind of identity politics (3). This old ingredient has been added back inside the social recipe of both major political parties. Throughout American history, “Big tent” political cartoons depicted many pejorative notions warning the public of suspicious individuals surrounding populist movements. However, inside a populist “Big tent” everyone is fighting for a seat at the table and the winners, win.

Immediately after November 3rd, 2020, NJGOP Chairman Doug Steinhardt and Save Jersey editor Matt Rooney livestreamed on Facebook to discuss the election results. Additionally, Mr. Steinhardt spoke about “controlling the rule-makers”, which is formally synonymous with our elected representatives inside the State Legislature. He said that the New Jersey Republican Party needs to “aspire to be the Party of rule-makers, not just the one’s running to Court to change the rules” (4).

Governor Murphy’s “executive order [created] a modified vote-by-mail election” that sent ballots out “to all active registered voters” due to the COVID-19 virus. “The executive order [extended] the deadline to allow ballots being returned through the United States Postal Service (USPS), if received by 8:00 p.m. on November 10th “(6). Doug Steinhardt finished the livestream by saying, “We (NJGOP) sued Phil Murphy three times, over executive orders, over his [budget] borrowing and over the ability to vote in person… but if you don’t have resources leftover to change the rule-makers, and all your doing is spending your resources to try and change the rules… every time you win a battle and get a court to agree with you that there is something wrong with the rules, the rule-makers just deal you a New rule to contend with, we saw that with vote-by-mail, the Governor issued an executive order that was clearly Unconstitutional, we filed a lawsuit and the Democrat Legislature the next week ratified it, adopting the Governor’s executive order as legal. If we (Republicans) controlled the Legislature, that never would have happened. We need to elect Republicans.” (4).

On January 4th, 2021, Team Steinhardt sent a mass email with the title, “EXPOSED: Ciattarelli Investments in the Chinese Communist Party”. The audacious email was headed by a “Steinhardt for Governor” logo and prefaced with a statement, “President Donald Trump… calls for election integrity, inquiries into Dominion voting machines, to keep foreign made election machines out of New Jersey, and for the New Jersey government to divest itself of investments in Communist China, [but] Jack Ciattarelli went in the opposite direction.” The email continued outlining Chinese investments made by the favored Republican gubernatorial nominee (Jack Ciattiarelli). NJGOP Chairman Doug Steinhardt continued, “While President Trump and I were fighting to hold the Communist Party of China accountable, swampy politicians like Jack Ciattarelli were taking financial advice from the likes of Hunter Biden and making a personal profit off of questionable investments.” (5). Beginning the primary election battle early, Chairman Steinhardt was clearly eager to usurp the 2021 NJ Republican gubernatorial candidacy.

However, after the chaos that took place at the nation’s capital on January 6, 2021, Doug Steinhardt abruptly dropped out of New Jersey’s Governor race. The rest of the year featured New Jersey as one of only two States in the entire nation to host Gubernatorial elections. New Jersey Republicans shocked the Media by exceeding their expectations and defying pollsters (7). Unfortunately, New Jersey Republican candidate Jack Ciattarelli lost 1,255,185 votes to Governor Phil Murphy’s 1,339,471 votes (8). On the other hand, South Jersey Democrat, Steve Sweeny lost his State Senate seat to Republican truck driver Edward Durr by roughly 2,000 votes (9). Clearly, the one million NJ Democrat voter advantage is not active.

Ever since the 2020 elections, New Jersey had “a recent surge in voter registration” gaining “more Republicans than Democrats” (10). Due to this increase, it became ever more important that New Jersey Republican voters strictly vet nominees during their prospective Primary elections. The pejorative term “RINO”, which is an acronym for “Republican In Name Only” is a term overused and mostly associated with the “No true Scotsman” fallacy (11). Those vetted Republican nominees will be slandered as “RINO’s” and it is their job to prove the naysayers wrong and earn their trust. In all honesty, many labeled “RINO’s” are lifelong voting Republicans who regularly donate their money and their time to local, regional and State level NJGOP politics. This is also what earns these dedicated few the label, “Establishment”. On the contrary, many Republican voters are new to NJGOP politics, never donated their time or their money and have voted Democrat in the near past. The rift that lingers inside the New Jersey Republican Party is between the party “Establishment” and the populist “Make America Great Again” movement by President Donald J. Trump. Furthermore, there exists another purity test called the “Never Trumper”. Never Trumpers play two polarizing dichotomies; one side that accepts Donald Trump as rightful leader of the Republican Party and one side that does not. With that being said, I will now historicize five NJGOP leaders who have widened this rift and have been accused of being both, “RINO’s” and “Never Trumpers”.

Jack Ciattarelli –

Immediately following the 2017 Gubernatorial elections that gifted New Jersey four years of Phil Murphy, tenured Republican leader Jack Ciattarelli began his second campaign for Governor and prepared for a crucial election in 2021. Between the years of 2018 and 2020, Jack Ciattarelli appeared as a rockstar all around the State of New Jersey, speaking at fundraisers, entertaining interviews by radio-hosts and endorsing NJGOP candidates. “Cool Jack” was coasting his way toward an easy primary election without much (if at all) opposition. However, with the public doubting the true outcome of the 2020 Presidential election, Jack Ciattarelli said “don’t worry about the [voting] machines” (13) because “Joe Biden was elected fairly and squarely.” (14). This prompted both Hirsh Singh and Phil Rizzo to challenge Mr. Ciattarelli in that year’s primary election, and more importantly to earn the right to challenge tyrant Governor Phil Murphy. Unfortunately, establishment Republican Jack Ciattarelli won the NJGOP Primary, then lost the NJ General election in 2021 and has vowed, “I’ll be running for Governor in four years.” during his concession speech (15). For the last six years, Never Trumper’s like Jack have been keeping the Make America Great Again movement at bay, and you can expect a repeat of the last four years to occur in the next four years unless the NJGOP chooses America First.

Bob Hugin –

In his 2018 Senate campaign television ad, NJGOP leader Bob Hugin said, “I often hear, will you stand up to President Trump? The answer is, yes, Marines never back down from a fight.” (12). If that doesn’t shock you enough, the next year Bob Hugin “supported the candidacy of Jennifer Williams for General Assembly of New Jersey.” (16). “If elected, Williams would be the first transgender Republican representative in the country representing her constituents at the State level.” (17). During a national culture war, Bob Hugin was pushing progressive optics onto New Jersey Republicans. In 2021, Bob Hugin was dubbed NJGOP Chairman by Jack Ciattarelli because “tradition [says], the party’s nominee for Governor gets to designate the new State chairman.” (18). Lastly, Bob Hugin tried educating the public in a 2022 interview by telling his plans to continue the “Big tent” strategy inside the NJGOP. As newly appointed Chairman, Bob Hugin warns that “we have to recognize, in certain parts of the State… people are going to have certain views… I happen to be Pro-Choice… a lot of Republicans are not Pro-Choice, but we have a Big tent.” (19).

Jose Arango –

The chair of the chairs is the leader of a group of 21 New Jersey County Republican chairmen. Currently, this position is held by lifelong politician Jose Arango. In 2019, Hudson County Republican Chairman Jose Arango rescinded his endorsement of his own Republican sheriff candidate and endorsed the Democrat incumbent instead, just because the Republican questioned why the LGBT community receives an entire month to celebrate pride (20). He then escaped a challenge for Hudson County Chairman in 2021 by using the media, newspapers and fellow County Republican Chairmen to run a progressive hit campaign against his opponent (21). On top of this all, Jose Arango would routinely remind his Constituents that “we have extremists in both parties… the people who are against me are the same extremists who were in Washington” on January 6th (22).

Jon Bramnick –

While America First Patriots navigated the outcome of the 2020 Presidential election in battleground States like Pennsylvania, NJGOP leaders like Jon Bramnick refused to answer the call for election integrity. He said, “as the Republican leader in the State Assembly I am deeply concerned about the President Trump’s allegation that the election is being stolen without evidence of fraud or illegality. This attack directly from the White House is dangerous to our democracy.” (23). Audacious claims like those are what prompted New Jersey Republican voters to advocate for an audit of New Jersey’s 2020 November election. In 2021, grassroot efforts organized petition signature campaigns all around the State to send affidavits to our elected officials demanding such an audit. Jon Bramnick was served an affidavit by his Constituents, and he ignored them (24). While America First Patriots navigated the 2021 Audit the Vote campaign, Jon Bramnick fundraised alongside Democrat Phil Murphy by “giving aid and comfort to a Governor who has – and continues to – hurt this State and rule like a dictator.” (25).

Tom Kean Jr –

Along with other NJGOP Congressional candidates in 2020, Tom Kean Jr. refused to formally debate his Republican primary opponents. Not that there existed any real competition, but more for the reason of keeping his name, his ideas and most importantly his voting record out of the spotlight. Tom Kean Jr. went on to lose his general election by a “1% margin (less than 4,400 votes).” (26). In 2021, Tom Kean Jr. was served an affidavit by his Constituents, demanding an audit for the previous year’s election due to concerns of election integrity, and he ignored them (24). The next year, Mr. Kean faced real Republican primary opponents bidding for the Midterm congressional candidacy. Similarly in 2022, he “refused to debate his primary opponents.” (27).

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(1) https://nj.gov/state/elections/election-information-svrs.shtml

(2) https://www.canva.com/design/DAEPAesotdg/Go-fA1MbgSzaO1Md5WLJUg/view?utm_content=DAEPAesotdg&utm_cam#43

(3)