Ciattarelli’s rally channels Trump, Kirk
New Jersey gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli’s rally in Wildwood Friday night time drew an enthusiastic crowd hoping to shift the Backyard State from blue to crimson.
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WILDWOOD, N.J. – There’s a robust argument to be made that Donald Trump and Charlie Kirk are the 2 most important conservative figures within the nation over the previous decade, and New Jersey GOP gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli clearly has been taking notes.
In an age of screens and isolation, Trump and Kirk have all the time understood how highly effective precise human presence and interplay are — and that was on full show Friday night time on this South Jersey seashore city.
DAVID MARCUS: FOR JACK CIATTARELLI, SOUTH JERSEY AND VOTER ENTHUSIASM ARE KEYS TO VICTORY
By my rely, about 800 folks confirmed up on the boardwalk. Amongst them was 24-year-old Alex, in a gold MAGA hat and sun shades.
“It simply type of faucets into the humanity of all of it,” he instructed me, including, “After we are battling on the web, we overlook the type of frequent floor that may exist.”
Individuals who attended the rally for gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli Friday, Oct. 10, 2025 in Wildwood, N.J., mentioned getting collectively in particular person generates an vitality that may’t be duplicated on-line. (Fox Information Digital)
Diane and Renee have been out with their husbands on the occasion, and Diane instructed me of reside rallies: “I really feel prefer it brings us collectively extra, and it makes us really feel like, ‘Let’s go!’”
Dominic, a schoolteacher in his 50s, instructed me he’s typically annoyed by the woke schooling agenda. He credited Kirk with utilizing reside occasions to “ignite one thing within the youth of America.”
It wasn’t simply voters but in addition candidates who noticed the worth within the in-person rally. Billy Prempeh, who misplaced the race for Congress in New Jersey’s ninth District final time and is working once more, instructed me, “President Trump had the primary Wildwood rally right here, and it was an enormous success.”
So far as points went, vitality costs have been prime of thoughts, as have been taxes and crime. However there was an electrical energy that transcended any specific coverage concern and turned the occasion into an pressing name for “taking New Jersey again.”
Contained in the Seaport Pier, simply earlier than the doorway to the boardwalk stage, voters chatted at tables, having fun with a buffet courtesy of CapeGOP, which organized the occasion and offered its amiable host, Mike Donahue.
The rally for New Jersey gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli Friday night time in Wildwood could have lacked the scale of a Trump occasion, however it had comparable vitality, writes columnist David Marcus.
The Turning Level USA desk — Kirk’s most tangible legacy — was abuzz. Its younger organizers have been crafting plans to comb throughout colleges within the Backyard State.
It was enjoyable, it was festive, it was hopeful.
Lately, whenever you get greater than 100 Democrats collectively in the identical place, issues have a tendency to begin catching on hearth — typically American flags. However for the GOP, these occasions aren’t simply peaceable; they’re genuinely joyous.
This picture of the pleased conservative warrior was personified by everybody I talked to, and that picture of the GOP performs extraordinarily properly throughout the nation.
Jack Ciattarelli, the GOP gubernatorial nominee in New Jersey, takes questions from reporters following a debate on Oct. 8, 2025 in New Brunswick, N.J. (Paul Steinhauser – Fox Information)
The truth is, one other a part of the key sauce that made Trump and Kirk’s rallies so profitable is that they typically occurred in elements of the nation the place comparatively few folks enterprise. Trump most popular pulling as much as a small-town airport for a rally quite than an enormous metropolis. Kirk’s occasions spanned so-called flyover nation.
There’s no escaping the sensation that one is at a tent revival at conservative political rallies nowadays. God is on the lips of many audio system and attendees — unabashedly so — not as one thing to be tolerated however celebrated.
Within the post-COVID world, Republicans throughout the nation can be clever to lean laborious into these reside occasions — with music, meals and possibly even a few beers.
It’s not simply the 800 individuals who truly got here to Wildwood on Friday who’re necessary right here — it’s everybody they’ll inform about it. It’s the type of enthusiasm that turns one voter into many citizens.
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Although Ciattarelli roused the gang admirably, it was GOP get-out-the-vote guru Scott Presler, together with his darkish, flowing mane, who drew probably the most consideration from the gang and fielded probably the most selfie requests. These are extremely useful voters.
Charlie Kirk understood, and President Trump understands, that reside occasions, rallies and easily being in each other’s good firm imply an infinite quantity to folks. As Democrats succumb increasingly to indignant cursing, the enjoyable of the GOP is a robust counterpoint.
Trump has floated the thought of a midterm nationwide conference subsequent yr. Not solely ought to Republicans do that, however it must be a blowout — a family-friendly amusement park of the American dream, one thing the entire nation can watch in awe.
One month after Kirk was assassinated at his occasion in Utah, the audio system and the gang on the boardwalk this weekend stood unbowed and unafraid of those that want them hurt. They stood for his or her get together, their nation and Charlie Kirk — and in addition for Jack Ciattarelli, who hopes to persuade voters {that a} pleased conservative warrior can lead the Backyard State but once more.
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