New Jersey Democrat Flips To GOP, Credits Trump
The political earthquake in New Jersey just got stronger. Garfield Mayor Everett E. Garnto Jr., leader of Bergen County’s fifth-largest municipality, officially ditched the Democratic Party on Thursday and endorsed Republican gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli.
Speaking before several hundred supporters at a Garfield rally, Garnto didn’t mince words about why he left the Left.
“For the last seven and a half years, [Gov.] Phil Murphy’s policies have left us with sky-high taxes, soaring electric bills, and less safe communities,” Garnto declared. “New Jerseyans deserve better. Jack Ciattarelli is ready to turn this state around.”
Garnto, a former school board member and longtime president of Garfield’s Police Benevolent Association Local 46, has already backed President Donald Trump in the 2024 election. His support is another sign that working-class communities in deep-blue states are moving firmly into the GOP’s camp.
Trump carried Garfield by nine points in 2024, a sharp swing from the town’s narrow Democratic lean in 2021. Statewide, Trump narrowed Democrats’ advantage to single digits — a once unthinkable shift in the Garden State.
Ciattarelli, a former state assemblyman, faces U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-Montclair) in November. He is also highlighting the support of other Democrat defectors, including Dover Mayor James P. Dodd, to showcase a growing backlash against Murphy’s failed leadership and the far-left agenda in Trenton.
“It’s not just Republicans who are crying out for change,” Ciattarelli told the crowd. “It’s unaffiliated, independent voters and yes, even moderate Democrats who’ve come to the realization that this current administration has failed.”
While Ciattarelli downplayed the role of endorsements, the optics are undeniable: local Democrats are jumping ship, and the momentum is with the GOP.
Meanwhile, President Trump continues to transform the political map of New Jersey. A May Emerson College/Pix 11/The Hill poll found Trump and Murphy locked at 47 percent approval, with Murphy under water on favorability overall. In 2016, Hillary Clinton crushed Trump in New Jersey by 14 points; by 2024, Kamala Harris managed only a 5.9-point margin.
Pollster Jason Corley of Quantus Insights told Breitbart News the shift is profound:
“Trump’s rise in New Jersey is more than a polling quirk—it is a symptom of the deeper disillusionment of a forgotten electorate. Compared to his dismal 38% approval in 2020, Trump has gained nearly 18 net points in five years.”
Corley noted that Harris’ 2024 result represented a stunning 10-point swing toward Republicans since 2020, adding:
“Trump flipped counties long assumed to be safe for Democrats: Gloucester, Passaic, Atlantic, Cumberland, and even Morris. This wasn’t a surge so much as a shift—a groundswell building under the feet of a party too preoccupied with cultural crusades and regulatory overreach to see the ground cracking beneath them.”
With Democrats bleeding support among independents and even their own base, New Jersey may no longer be the impenetrable fortress Democrats once believed it to be. President Trump has already redrawn the map. Now state-level Democrats are finding out just how vulnerable they’ve become.