Mario Kranjac

Mario Kranjac (born 1965/1966) is an American lawyer, venture capitalist, and Republican Party politician who served as mayor of Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, from 2016 to 2024. His tenure as mayor was noted for his strong support of Donald Trump. He graduated from Fordham University's Gabelli School of Business as part of their class of 1987 and from the Fordham University Law School in 1990 and serves on the university's Entrepreneurial Law Advisory Committee.

Kranjac stated that his interest in politics started when he worked for Newt Gingrich on a delegation to Japan, South Korea and China.

Mayor of Englewood Cliffs Kranjac was elected as the mayor of Democratic-leaning Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, in 2016 as a Republican, being the first Republican elected mayor in 40 years and would be re-elected in 2020. Kranjac has styled himself as a "forever Trumper," earning him the nickname the "Trumpy Mayor" by The Star Ledger which he often uses to describe himself. During his time as mayor he championed legislation to block affordable housing developments across the state.

In response Kranjac stated that Bergen County Court judge Anthony Gallina is biased against him and requesting that the lawsuit against him be moved to another county. Because of his actions not a single unit of affordable housing was built in the municipality for almost a decade and Kranjac's defiance to Murphy and the courts made him a champion of suburban Republicans and Conservatives who claim affordable housing results in higher taxes and lower property values.

Gubernatorial candidate

Kranjac's name had been floated as a candidate for governor in 2025 since June 22, 2024 due to his highly visible tenure as mayor. After confirming he would seek the Republican nomination on January 29, 2025, Kranjac officially announced he would be running in the 2025 gubernatorial election on February 4. On February 18 he would be endorsed by Newt Gingrich who said that "Mario has a proven record of winning tough races in a Democrat town." Kranjac announced his platform as to "lower taxes, fight party boss corruption, educate not indoctrinate our kids and enact term limits" and that his top goal as governor would be to cut taxes 2% for each year he’s in office by cutting out waste. At an April 2 event hosted by the Rutgers University College Republicans and the Conservative NGO Freedom Bell Coalition, Kranjac further outlined his platform as seeking to create a "NJ DOGE" to gut state spending and to "Make New Jersey Great Again." He also stated that he had a similar office created during his time as mayor, and that he would introduce legislation to ban abortion if elected governor. He has attempted to emulate Trump's use of nicknames, calling Jack Ciattarelli and Bill Spadea "Spadarelli", claiming that the two have no differences whatsoever, don't stand for anything, and changed their ideology to be more conservative to gain votes. He also stated that he would seek to broadly emulate Trump's governance if elected. Support for Kranjac comes at Spadea's expense as he has eaten into a sizable portion of the "MAGA grassroots." In April Spadea would launch a concerted effort to remove Kranjac from the primary's ballot to consolidate the ultra conservative vote by launching a lawsuit that argued Kranjac falsified some of the 2,949 signatures required to cross the threshold of 2,500 to appear on the ballot. Administrative Law Judge Carl Buck III would invalidate 372 of 202 signatures in the first day of review, however, the effort would narrowly fail as the Judge ruled he had 2,535 legitimate signatures. His right to appear on the ballot was confirmed by Secretary of State Tahesha Way. Despite this he hadn't raised the $580,000 needed to qualify for matching funds and a spot on the primary debate stage, which seriously damaged his campaign's chances of going toe to toe with Spadea for the Ultra Conservative vote. Kranjac is largely self-funding his campaign with his salary from his law firm, as well as resources from his venture capital firm. During the debate Kranjac held counter-programming, a virtual town-hall with Gingrich.

On April 5, at a straw poll held by the Morris County Republican Club Alliance Ciattarelli earned 42 votes, while Spadea earned 40, with Kranjac coming in last place with just 4 votes, behind both Jon Bramnick and fringe-outsider Justin Barbera. On April 25, a poll by Rutgers-Eagleton showed Kranjac with 0% in the primaries, however, he and his campaign have denied his consistent near-zero poll numbers, fictitiously claiming he has surged into "double digits" of "10 to 15 points" and that Rutgers-Eagleton is simply a Democratic-biased pollster who hates Trump. An earlier April 14 poll by National Research Inc. showed Kranjac with 3%. On March 3 the Mercer County Republican Party voted to endorse Spadea with 69 votes to Ciattarelli's 59 and 33 votes to Bramnick, with Kranjac receiving 0 votes, at the same time, the Bergen County Republican Party also voted, giving Ciattarelli 48 votes with Kranjac coming in a distant second with 11. A May 10 poll also by Rutgers-Eagleton, showed Kranjac with 2%. He has also used his platform as candidate to further attack Phil Murphy, namely for his COVID-19 response, his refusal to follow federal immigration law, and his hypocrisy for attacking him for refusing to follow Murphy's housing decree. He also said “President Trump fought hard to overturn Roe vs. Wade,” and that “He empowered the States with the ability to finally start building cultures of life and we’re not going to squander that opportunity.” Despite his endorsement, neither Gingrich, nor any Gingrich-backed PACs, have donated to his campaign.

Kranjac ultimately came in fourth place with 2.7% of the vote in the primary, or 12,530 votes behind Bramnick, Spadea, and the winner Ciattarelli, but above Barbera.

Personal life Kranjac serves on the Boards of the Lavelle Fund For the Blind, Alliance of Guardian Angels and the Institute of Human Ecology of Catholic University.

At the time of the announcement of his gubernatorial campaign, Kranjac was married and had three adult children.