there are only two months until the primary election in New Jersey where each party will choose their candidate for governor and the challengers are all making their final push to reach voters and try to secure their support while they do that we'll be taking a close look at each candidate what their campaign priorities are and the issues they're running on first up is Republican candidate John Bramnik a longtime legislator who's making his first run for governor senior political correspondent David Cruz takes a closer look you saw this guy on TV he's nice he's normal he's a family man and he's not crazy like these other politicians state Senator John Bramnik is a funny guy the self-proclaimed funniest lawyer in New Jersey he may have launched his campaign in a comedy club but his run for governor is no joke he says while the other candidates in this primary trip over themselves to curry favor with President Trump Bramnik is the leading anti-Trump Republican in the state he's counting on party voters to look beyond the race for Trump's heart and the MAGA mindset well that's really interesting so if I can't win the primary then how are the Republicans win the general election it's surely not going to be based on denying the election of Joe Biden it's not going to be based on denying January 6 activities so let me tell you if we have a candidate who does that or hides or dances from that we will lose the general so let's see you know I've they said I couldn't win elections before when the Trumpers were on my right and the Democrats are my left and I won by six or seven points bramnik says "New Jersey's Democratic Party dominated state government has led to unchecked state spending and outofstep policies on everything from the environment and immigration to taxes and housing which his fellow Republicans probably agree with but Trump the first problem he had was that Trump won the presidency now as Trump starts to struggle I think potentially Bramnik makes more sense but that doesn't mean Republican primary voters are ready to talk in in those terms they're not ready to talk about criticizing Trump and so they're going to be the last ones who are going to be ready to criticize Trump for all this talk of Trump and how he's playing in Jersey today who knows what voters will be preoccupied with even a month from now for Bramnik he says he's trying to keep a baseline ethos for his campaign which he expressed at a recent forum in front of the progressive New Jersey Institute for Social Justice i thought it was more important than ever to come here and show unity we're at a threshold and more important than ever we got to stand together as one country and as Americans and work together and love each other and show respect and that's going to be my goal as governor of the state of New Jersey thank you very much that's the most ash moment you're probably going to hear in the entire Republican primary season it's a stance Bramnik has held since day one whether the rest of New Jersey's Republican primary voters share it is going to be key to his success i'm David Cruz NJ Spotlight News