Jersey City's Fulop is running for governor — 2 years ahead of election

Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop announced on Tuesday morning that he will run for governor in 2025.

Fulop, 46, previously announced in January he wouldn’t run for a fourth term as mayor of Jersey City. The next mayoral election is also in 2025.

An announcement of Fulop’s gubernatorial campaign on Tuesday described him as a “strong Democrat and a hugely successful and experienced executive leader” who “has helped guide Jersey City into an unprecedented renaissance as it has become the state’s economic and cultural engine.”

The announcement comes more than two years before the election. Several other prominent Democrats have made moves political observers say may be precursors to their own campaigns.

Former state Senate President Stephen Sweeney launched a think tank last month based at Rowan University. He may run for governor but also hasn’t ruled out seeking another term in the Senate, NJ.com reports. A Fairleigh Dickinson University poll in February found that 11th District Rep. Mikie Sherill, first lady Tammy Murphy and Newark Mayor Ras Baraka all had high favorability ratings as potential gubernatorial candidates. Dan Cassino, a professor of government and politics at Fairleigh Dickinson, said strong name recognition and connections could also give Lt. Gov. Sheila Oliver an advantage.

Republican Jack Ciattarelli, after conceding to Gov. Phil Murphy in the 2021 race, said he’d run again in 2025.

Fulop starts his campaign with significant funding, according to Politico. A super PAC run by his wife’s business partner that Politico describes as “all but officially considered Fulop’s” has $6.2 million.

Fulop was elected to a third mayoral term in 2021, the first Jersey City mayor to do so since the reign of legendary boss Frank Hague, who led the city from 1917 to 1947. Fulop won his first re-election bid in 2017 with 78% of the vote.

In 2016, Fulop dropped out of the race for governor 11 months before the vote that led to Murphy’s election.

Fulop is the son of immigrants — his mother is a Jewish Holocaust survivor and his father fought in Israel’s Six-Day War. Fulop worked on Wall Street and left to serve in the Marine Corps in Iraq. He was elected to the Jersey City Council in 2005 and was first elected mayor in 2013.

“From my time serving as a U.S. Marine to leading Jersey City as mayor, my career has always been guided by a strong desire to take on difficult challenges and find solutions that help improve peoples’ lives,” Fulop said in the campaign announcement.

When Fulop announced he would not run for mayor in January, he described a history of “running for office outside the political establishment and standing up to powerful interests.”

He tweeted at the time that “You never know where life takes you next.”

He also touted his work on affordable housing, boosting public transportation and hiring more police officers. He said at the time he was proud to have reduced pedestrian deaths through his “Vision Zero” program.

Fulop saw criticism from some Jersey City residents pouring into City Council meetings last year, because he never spoke out against City Councilmember Amy DeGise, who was eventually convicted in connection with a hit-and-run accident involving a cyclist last August. DeGise had run as part of Fulop's slate in 2021.