RNC won’t back NJ gubernatorial candidate over criticism of Trump: report

The Republican National Committee isn’t spending big for New Jersey gubernatorial candidate Kim Guadagno because the RNC doesn’t think she has been loyal to President Trump, NJ.com reported Wednesday. 

Guadagno, currently the lieutenant governor under Gov. Chris Christie (R), is viewed skeptically by the RNC because of her criticism of Trump after the release of the “Access Hollywood” tape and as a lost cause, the report said.

“[The president] is unhappy with anyone who neglected him in his hour of need,” an RNC insider reportedly said, referring to Guadagno’s public disavowal of Trump last fall after the surfacing last year of the “Access Hollywood” tape, in which Trump brags about sexually assaulting women.

No apology can excuse away Mr. Trump’s reprehensible comments degrading women. We’re raising my 3 boys to be better than that.

— Kim Guadagno (@KimGuadagnoNJ) October 8, 2016

“Christie was not as stalwart as some people in the party, but at least he didn’t go against him the way she did,” the RNC insider said.

{mosads}Former New Jersey Gov. Christie Whitman (R) said the RNC was “reluctant to back the campaign in the way one would have expected,” adding that the implication was “you were not a Trump supporter in the primary, and so don’t expect much money.”

Guadagno, who has been trailing in recent polls, also won’t be getting support from Christie’s top fundraisers, who reportedly said they are sitting out the race because she has been deemed disloyal to Christie after criticizing him on his visit to the beach that was closed to the public during the state shutdown.

“If I were governor, I sure wouldn’t be sitting on the beach if taxpayers didn’t have access to state beaches. It’s beyond words,” Guadagno said in a Facebook post.

The Republican Governors Association, a group aimed at electing GOP governors, also reportedly does not plan to spend big to back her.