Congressional Republicans, stepping on what has long been considered a political third rail — cutting Medicaid — don’t have to face voters at the ballot box for at least another year.
That’s not the case for some in the party, who are campaigning in off-year elections as the GOP negotiates its reconciliation bill. The Republican nominee for governor in New Jersey, Jack Ciattarelli, is one such candidate.
The former state lawmaker, vying for the second time in a general election to become New Jersey’s governor, is having to answer for a bill that would cut Medicaid by $793 billion over the next 10 years and push 10.3 million people off the program by 2034, per the Congressional Budget Office’s estimates.
In recent rally speeches and interviews, Ciattarelli has responded to questions about the bill in different ways. He’s denied the cuts, saying he stands behind President Donald Trump — who supports the legislation — and at times argued in favor of cutting spending on entitlement programs.
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Ciattarelli told a reporter last week that he does not currently disagree with Trump on anything.
Earlier this month, he said that those asking about welfare cuts in the bill are just targeting Trump.
“They want to talk about Medicaid, they want to talk about Medicare, they want to talk about Social Security, they want to pick on the president,” he said at a rally on June 1 of the Democratic contenders for New Jersey governor. “If you want to protect Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, the best way to do that is get rid of the fraud, and that’s exactly what the president is doing.”
But at a town hall in Bergen County on May 28, he called discussions of the cuts “lies.”
“President Trump’s not cutting any of those things,” Ciattarelli said at the town hall. “He’s identifying the fraud in each one of those programs.”
Ciattarelli isn’t the only candidate in a contested statewide race considering how to navigate discussions of the tax bill.
In Virginia, where this year’s gubernatorial race is also widely viewed as a bellwether for national sentiment ahead of the 2026 midterms, Republican candidate Winsome Earle-Sears has declined multiple times to comment on the tax bill provisions, arguing that they are hypotheticals.
Earle-Sears’ campaign refused to answer a question from a reporter this month about the candidate’s thoughts on Medicaid and other health care cuts.
Nationally, Republicans have struck a similar tone as they’ve attempted to cast the steep welfare cuts in the tax bill as a stab at the widespread “waste, fraud and abuse” that the Trump administration has alleged and vowed to go after.
Sensitivity around the issue has been apparent.
At the same Bergen County town hall in May, Ciattarelli decried Democratic efforts to tie him to the welfare cuts Republicans are pushing in Congress.
“They’re going to say Jack Ciattarelli is responsible for cuts in Social Security,” he said. “Do you notice those are all federal programs?”
“They’re going to want to talk about Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security with lies,” he added. “I’m going to make sure this spotlight stays on New Jersey issues … We’re not going to let them get away with Phil Murphy’s failed record.”
While estimates on how the bill’s health care cuts would affect the state vary, some total to more than $19 billion in losses for New Jersey over the next decade, which includes losses from proposed changes to insurance premiums and potential costs of uncompensated care for residents who lose health coverage.
The Medicaid cuts alone, if passed, could strip about 350,000 state residents of coverage, according to New Jersey’s human services department.
Republicans’ mixed messaging has prompted Democratic organizations boosting Rep. Mikie Sherrill, the Democratic nominee for governor, to go on the offensive.
“More than 300,000 New Jerseyans are set to lose their Medicaid coverage thanks to Donald Trump, but Jack Ciattarelli said ‘I do not’ disagree with Trump on a single issue,” New Jersey Democratic State Committee spokesperson Ryan Radulovacki told NOTUS in a statement. “The next governor of this state needs to stand up to this administration’s attacks on health care, not roll over like ‘100% MAGA’ Jack would every time.”
Ciattarelli’s campaign, meanwhile, is attacking Sherrill for voting against the House’s version of the reconciliation bill last month. In a statement to NOTUS, New Jersey Republican strategist and Ciattarelli campaign adviser Chris Russell criticized Sherrill for opposing provisions in the bill that would quadruple the maximum state and local tax deduction New Jersey residents can take, institute work requirements for welfare services and offer a child tax credit.
“The reality is Jack wants to strengthen Medicaid for people and families who need it, while Mikie wants to weaken it by allowing unchecked waste, fraud and abuse,” Russell said in the statement.
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Shifra Dayak is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.
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