‘Ed the Trucker’ ends Republican run for NJ governor

🔴 Ed Durr said he did not raise enough to get matching funds from the state

🔴 He told New Jersey 101.5 he is not endorsing any candidate

🔴 Durr would like to run for another political office

MORE: Trump meets with 2 candidates for NJ governor

Ed "The Trucker" Durr has pulled his run for New Jersey governor off to the side of the road.

The Republican told New Jersey 101.5 that while he met the deadline to submit 2,500 signatures to get on the primary ballot in June,  he did not raise the $580,000 needed to get matching funds for the campaign. Without the matching funds, Durr would be be unable to participate in future gubernatorial debates. Durr said that while his campaign comes to an end he will continue to fundraise with an eye toward another political race and a campaign debt to be paid.

"As far as getting out of the race it was actually something that we've been talking about for the last two days. It's just not going to be able to on the debate stage. So without being on the debate stage, I'm not going to be able to reach everybody," Durr said.

Durr said he is not endorsing Bill Spadea or any other candidate.

"I didn't endorse Bill. I believe Bill is closely aligned with me. I think he's more conservative. Jack (Ciattarelli) is not a pro-life candidate, nor is Jon (Bramick). I'm pro-life, and I've never changed from that," Durr said, adding that he hasn't decided if he will make an endorsement.

Sad about leaving the race

Durr told New Jersey Globe,  which was the first to report on Durr's withdrawal from the race, that his exit allows Spadea to use his campaign resources on two candidates he believes do not support President Donald Trump. Ciattarelli posted on his X account a picture of him with Trump at his Bedminster golf club on Friday. Spadea would not confirm a NJ Globe report that he met with Trump on Saturday.

The delivery driver said he was "sad" about leaving the race and had a lot of great people working for his race.

"I still think that my voice was an important one and I think that it resonated with a lot of people. It's unfortunate that I just could not raise the money that I needed to be in the race," Durr said. "We really had an opportunity to change the face of politics from the ground up."

Durr said that he would like an opportunity to serve the people of New Jersey again and calls it a great honor. He served as state senator from 2020 to  2024 after pulling off an upset win over Democrat Steve Sweeney.

"I really thought that we had a good message. We had a very good message, and we were reaching a lot of people. We just weren't reaching enough," Durr said.

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