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The 2021 NJ GOP Gubernatorial Primary, one of the longest primaries in the country, thanks to eventual Nominee, former Assemblyman Jack Ciatarelli Anouncing in january of 2020, less than three months after the "Murphy Midterms", was considered an underwhealming result for the Assemblyman.
This result was considered to be underwhelming due to the fact that most observers considered Ciatarelli to be the Presumptive nominee after then NJ GOP Chair, Doug Steinheart, withdrew from the race in January of 2021.
And only winning a plurality against Conservative Pastor Phil Rizzo, and Perenial Candidate Hirsh Singh, showcase the perception most observers had with Ciattarelli as having problems with the base.
Something that was evidenced at the time by the fact that Ciattarelli ran close, and tied himself to former President Trump durring the primary along with the other candidates.
However, once he became the nominee Ciattarelli began pivoting away from that posture, bringing up the former president as little as possible, focusing on Taxes, and Murphy originally being from Massachusetts as his main campaign issues
Furthermore, despite the fact that his home base is in Somerset county as well as the Ancestral Republican Northern Jersey(where he won a majority of the vote), Ciattarelli was surprisingly strong in southern Jersey, pulling upwards of 60% in the strongly GOP Cape May county.
This suprising strength would be forshadowing for thee General, where Ciattarelli postulated the strongest Result for a Republican in southern Jersey since Tom Kean Sr's 1985 Landslide.
All in all, while the topline result of this primary win wasn't that inpressive, the primary would be poor foreshadowing for Ciattarelli's inpressive showing in the General election, where he nearly unseated the incumbent Murphy, as had happened to every Democratic Governor since 1977.
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