Brian Lerer on WNYC in this election year for mayor of New York and governor of New Jersey,

there will be primaries in both contests, as many of you already know, in June. And there are multiple candidates

competing on both sides of the Hudson. We're inviting all the major primary candidates from both

parties in both races. And we kick off our New Jersey candidate interviews now with state senator

John Bramnick of Westfield running in the Republican primary. Remember,

Governor Murphy is term limited out after this year, and both parties have robust fields of

hopefuls. And part of the context is that Trump only lost in New Jersey this time by five points,

and Murphy only got reelected by three points in 2021 against Republican

Jack Chittarelli. Chittarelli is running again. And of course, we will invite him on again.

But so are seven other Republicans. John Bramnick is 71 years old. He's been a state senator since

2022. He was in the assembly for 18 years before that

and a Plainfield City Council member before that. He's also a lawyer and a sometimes stand-up

comedian will play a 20-second clip from one of his routines during this segment. And notably in the

context of the Republican primary, he's been an anti-Trump Republican.

Senator, thanks for joining us. Happy New Year and welcome to WNYC today.

Thanks for having me, Brian. Appreciate it.

I know everyone will want to know how you can win a Republican primary in 2025 being a critic of Trump, and we'll get to that. But I want to center

what directly affects people's lives more than centering political strategy. We always try to do that.

So what would you identify as the top three issues facing New Jerseyans that you would likely have

to deal with as governor? Well, my constituents always talk

about the cost of living in New Jersey, that they have to move despite the fact their families here.

So you really have to cap the local governments, myself, with the help of Chris Christie,

...