Jack Ciattarelli makes his lieutenant governor pick: A sheriff from Mikie Sherrill’s district
Republican Jack Ciattarelli chose Morris County Sheriff James Gannon to be his running mate in the New Jersey gubernatorial race.
Jack Ciattarelli, the Republican nominee for New Jersey governor, has picked Morris County Sheriff James Gannon as his running mate.
Gannon, whose selection was announced Wednesday, has deep roots in Democratic nominee Mikie Sherrill’s congressional district in North Jersey.
Ciattarelli’s decision bolsters his law-and-order messaging and his promise to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement as President Donald Trump ramps up his immigration crackdown.
Gannon appeared with Ciattarelli on Wednesday at Johnnies Tavern in Boonton, which is in Sherrill’s district.
In written remarks, Gannon said he plans “to do everything in my power to spread Jack’s positive message of common-sense solutions and transformative change for our state.”
He denounced “one-party Democratic rule” in Trenton and said “we’ve lost our way as a state.”
Gannon, 65, was elected sheriff in 2016 with nearly 63% of the vote. He was reelected in 2019 with nearly 59% of the vote and ran unopposed in 2022. He is slated to appear on the ballot for sheriff again this year.
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Gannon, whose father was in the New York Police Department, began his career in law enforcement in the 1980s as a patrol cop in his hometown of Boonton Township and then in neighboring Boonton. He served in the Boonton Township Fire Service from 1976 to 1979 and the Boonton Kiwanis Ambulance Squad from 1980 to 1983.
He went on to be deputy chief of investigations at the Morris County Prosecutor’s Office from 1986 to 2007, worked on the FBI’s elite Joint Terrorism Task Force from 2005 to 2007, and worked for Morris County-based Novartis Pharmaceuticals from 2008 to 2014, where he retired as the global head of security risk.
Sherrill has not yet announced her lieutenant governor pick but must do so by Monday under a ballot deadline. She has also not publicly commented on Ciattarelli’s pick, but her campaign manager Alex Ball said in a statement that “Jack basically functions as Trump’s New Jersey running mate” and his “choice for Lieutenant Governor will simply fall in line.”
The Democratic nominee flipped her congressional district blue in 2018, defeating a Republican opponent after the GOP incumbent retired. She has won Morris County every time she has been up for election, including last year, while Republicans led in the other congressional, presidential, and Senate races in the county. Parts of the county are in U.S. Rep. Tom Kean Jr.’s neighboring Republican district.
Gannon on Wednesday echoed Ciattarelli’s campaign promises, saying the duo would cut taxes, increase energy production, stop the “overdevelopment” of suburbs, and “fix the school funding mess and stop districts from keeping secrets from parents,” in a nod to the so-called parental rights movement in education. He also said they would “take the handcuffs off of our police.”
Ciattarelli said in a statement that Gannon is “a decorated law enforcement officer, a problem solver, and someone who I know can work with me to fix our state.”
“New Jersey is in need of proven leadership and people who know how to work across party lines to get things done — and that’s what Sheriff Gannon has done his entire career in public service,” Ciattarelli said.