In the New Jersey primary, Trump was not on the ballot, but was on voters’ minds

The gubernatorial primaries were vigorously contested; Assembly nominees were chosen in all 21 counties; and while President Donald Trump wasn’t on the ballot, he was very much on the minds of candidates and voters.

For all that, in the nation’s most densely populated state, crowd control evidently was not an issue at the polls Tuesday in New Jersey’s primary election. By midday at the Rutgers-Camden polling place, only 10 people had voted.

Still, political observers were confident that the turnout would well exceed that of the 2021 primary.

Voters interviewed expressed strong — and often contrasting — opinions about the candidates and the state of the nation. As usual, some voted out of a sense of duty.

“I always vote,” Shelly Mack, 56, said outside the municipal building in Woolwich Township, Gloucester County. “Primaries, presidential elections, school elections — your vote matters. If you don’t do it, you have no voice.” Mack was supporting former Democratic state Senate President Steve Sweeney for governor.

At the Cape May County Library in Sea Isle City, on what turned out to be a splendid beach day after a dreary start, turnout was “way better than I thought it would be,” said poll worker Toni Grdinich.

Plus, more than 10% of those registered already had cast ballots by mail or via early voting. It wouldn’t take a whole lot for turnout to surpass that of 2021, when only 17% of the eligible registrants cast ballots in a primary that featured a contested, four-way GOP gubernatorial race.

While former Assembly member Jack Ciattarelli won convincingly, a mere 10% of eligible Republicans voted for him that year.

Once again, Ciattarelli, this time with Trump’s backing, was declared the winner shortly after the polls closed in an election in which both primaries had crowded fields in the race to succeed term-limited Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy.

» READ MORE: Jack Ciattarelli, backed by President Trump, becomes the Republican nominee for N.J. governor

Ciattarelli will oppose U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill, winner of the Democratic primary.

Among those supporting Ciattarelli were David Barg, 55, who voted in Cherry Hill. He said the issue came down to one word: “values.” A longtime Republican, Barg said he was alarmed by Democrats on the ballot who were on the “lunatic liberal fringe” and are “really not supportive of this country.”

In Atlantic City, Daj Blackwell, 50, who like many other South Jersey Democrats, cast her ballot for former state Senate President Steve Sweeney, saw things differently.

Blackwell, a housekeeper at the Hard Rock Casino, said she was no fan of Trump’s, adding that “morale was down” throughout the party because of actions taken by his administration in its first months. She hailed Sweeney as staunch supporter of unions, adding, “housekeepers are in danger.”

Voting in Gloucester Township, Camden County, Nicole Landis, 52, said she was backing Sherrill, because “she just clicked with me.”

She said it mattered to her that Sherrill, bidding to become the state’s second female governor, is a woman and a mother and “speaks to the kind of person I am.”

While neither a woman nor a mother, Dean Horneck, 31, a lawyer who lives in Fairfield, Essex County, said, “I just think we need a woman governor.”

» READ MORE: U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill wins crowded Democratic primary for N.J. governor

Ryan Myers, 42, another voter critical of Trump, voted for Newark Mayor Ras Baraka. At the library in Sea Isle City, the restaurant manager said that he wanted a choice that was “a little bit outside of the norm.” He said he was familiar with Sweeney, and “not the biggest fan.”

Myers said he favored “progressive issues” and “just sort of anything anti-what’s currently happening with our national politics.”

Tara Smith, a teacher, and her daughter Chloe Smith, 23, a recent college graduate who live in Essex County, both said they voted for Baraka, but for different reasons. Tara Smith said she liked what she viewed as the positive change Baraka brought to Newark.

Chloe Smith said she decided to vote for Baraka after seeing videos of him engaging with his constituents in a way she hasn’t seen from Sherrill.

Outside the James J. Cullen Community Center in Hazlet, Monmouth County, locals Freddie and Linda Moore declared that they voted for Ciattarelli and “against woke.”

In addition to the gubernatorial and Assembly races, Democratic voters in Atlantic City were deciding whether to renominate incumbent Mayor Marty Small Sr., who is facing trial on charges of physically and emotionally abusing his daughter.

Small, opposed by Local 54 president Bob McDevitt, was endorsed by the city’s police and fire unions in the mayoral primary. Blackwell said she voted for McDevitt but was not passing judgment on Small. “I have nothing to say about that,” she said.

“I’m a parent. I have three children, and you have to discipline them.”

For Dale and Denise Bauer, voting in Cherry Hill, the primary was splitsville — politically, that is.

They make it a point to each register with a different party. “We want to have it split up so that we have some thoughts from both sides,” Denise Bauer said. “Wouldn’t you have two different people in a marriage do the same thing?”

Staff writers Nate File, Tom Gralish, Denali Sagner, and Aliya Schneider contributed to this article.