Jersey’s Jack Ciattarelli getting grass roots push from Citizens Alliance to clinch governor’s race

In the Garden State, they’re knocking wood in droves.

And hoping to deliver New Jersey from blue, flip it red and elect Republican candidate Jack Ciattarelli.

Citizens Alliance initiative NJ Chase has mobilized 105 workers to knock on doors all over New Jersey since August 4. As of Monday morning, they’ve hit 408,835 doors and are projected to reach at least 500,000 by Election Day.

The initiative is a spinoff of PA Chase which along with Scott Pressler’s Early Vote Action, helped methodically flip the Keystone state red for President Trump in 2024. Pressler has also seemingly been everywhere Ciattarelli is, rallying voters to come out for the GOP.

“We’re in a very competitive spot,” Citizens Alliance CEO Cliff Maloney told of the neck-and-neck race between Ciattarelli and Dem candidate Mikie Sherrill. “It’s where we wanted to be.”

A poll by co/efficient released Monday showed Sherrill with 48 percent of the potential vote compared to 47 percent for Ciattarelli, with five percent still undecided – making it too close for comfort for either candidate.

Citizens Alliance targets registered Republicans, who are unlikely to vote, to request mail-in ballots and ensure they actually send them in before election day. They’re essentially the good kind of nags.

“I did not create this strategy. I am just replicating what Joe Biden did in Pennsylvania in 2020… We’re running a reminder campaign. It’s placing a 20-year-old at their door and saying, ‘Will you promise and commit to voting today?’ We’re finally competing on the right.”

Otherwise, there’s a significant amount of Republican votes wasted and left on the floor.

In Pennsylvania in 2020, there were 140,000 Republicans who never sent their ballots back. “In 2024, we got that number [down] to 62,000,” said Maloney, adding that in Jersey, GOP voters had 183,908 mail requests. Currently only 83,000 are outstanding.

“We’ve heard thousands and thousands of times [from residents] that our door knocker is the first person who has come to their homes in years, if not ever.”

And every bit helps. In 2021, Ciattarelli came close to unseating Dem incumbent Phil Murphy, but fell just short by three percent.

When he lost, voters were fed up with COVID-19 mandates. But this cycle, they’re facing sky high energy bills, exorbitant taxes and woke agendas in schools.

For most of Murphy’s second term, school boards tangled with the state to establish common sense parental notification guidelines for kids who had socially transitioned. The state’s position was that the schools had no responsibility to inform parents of trans kids.

Just today, the Daily Wire reported the powerful New Jersey Education Association, which is backing Sherrill, will be hosting a panel for public school teachers, “Drag is not a Crime: The Past, Present, and Future of Drag” as part of their initiative to boost DEI in K12.

I grew up in Ocean County and though I’ve lived in New York City for close to 25 years, I still spend a lot of time there and in Monmouth County. Most people I know shake their heads at this nonsense and have only moved to the political right since COVID.

It’s a trend we’re seeing in Jersey. During the last presidential election, Trump lost to Harris by only six points. In 2020, Biden won by the much larger margin of 16 points.

Sherrill, a Virginia native who was elected to Congress in 2018, touts her experience as a former Navy helicopter pilot. Ironically, it feels like she just landed in NJ out of nowhere. In a state like Jersey — which thrives on personality — Sherrill seems like an empty vessel, lacking conviction or attitude. And she’s blown her early lead.

“We’re trending in the right direction,” said NJ Chase spokesperson, Alex Zdan, “We’re trending toward becoming a swing state.”

Over the weekend, the GOP candidate earned some serious momentum when influential Orthodox Jewish groups united to endorse him.

First the VAAD, a powerful council of Orthodox leaders in Lakewood, gave him the nod and then all the surrounding town councils joined in.

It was reportedly an unprecedented consensus.

In 2021, the VAAD endorsed Phil Murphy – though Ciattarelli won Lakewood. The Orthodox community, centered in Lakewood but has spread to all neighboring towns, skews conservative and has seen both their population and political power explode in recent years.

This race is a bellwether for the 2026 midterms.

And this surge for Ciattarelli is an encouraging sign for conservatives, especially as New York City prepares to elect a nepo baby socialist, running on a platform to tax the rich and make everything free.

It’s heartening to know that at least my native state is moving toward pragmatism and common sense – and is perhaps a better indication of the national political climate. But this isn’t the election to sit on your tuchus. Get out and vote. Vote for Ciattarelli.