DNC Slams Jack Ciattarelli’s Appearance with Anti-Vax Conspiracy Theorists Arrow

Tonight, New Jersey gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli is set to take the stage at the NJ Public Health Innovation PAC's gala - an organization that has repeatedly pushed claims that vaccines cause autism and other related conspiracy theories. Given the organization's anti-vax fearmongering, it should come as no surprise that Jack Ciattarelli will share the stage tonight with some major anti-vaxxers:

Sherri Tenpenny thinks COVID-19 vaccines could make people magnetic and suggested that vaccines "interface" with 5G towers.

Mary Holland, an RFK apologist who claimed measles, mumps and rubella are not particularly dangerous to children - in defiance of extensive medical evidence, has compared vaccine candidates to slavery.

Tonight's appearance is nothing new for Ciattarelli - he has long been associated with anti-vaxxers and has an anti-vax record himself.

In response to Ciattarelli's appearance, DNC Deputy Communications Director Abhi Rahman released the following statement:

"Jack Ciattarelli's decision to speak at tonight's anti-vax gala with some of the nation's most fringe conspiracy theorists, including one far-right-winger who thinks COVID vaccines make people magnetic and another who has compared vaccine mandates to slavery, puts New Jersey kids in harm's way. It's also no surprise, since Jack Ciattarelli has long been associated with anti-vaxxers and is an ardent defender of Trump's budget, which kicks 390,000 New Jerseyans off their health insurance. New Jerseyans deserve a governor who will protect our kids' health and well-being while lowering health care costs, and that leader is Mikie Sherrill."

Read more below in the Inquirer:

The Philadelphia Inquirer: Jack Ciattarelli scheduled to be a 'distinguished guest' alongside anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist

[Aliya Schneider, September 24, 2025]

• Jack Ciattarelli, the Republican nominee for New Jersey governor, is scheduled to be honored at an event featuring an anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist on Thursday, days after he appeared to moderate his tone on vaccines in the first gubernatorial debate.

• The candidate is advertised as a "distinguished guest" and the keynote speaker is Sherri Tenpenny, a doctor known nationally for peddling conspiracy theories about the COVID-19 vaccine.

• Ciattarelli's presence at the gala is advertised alongside Tenpenny and Jamel Holley, Leah Wilson, and Mary Holland.

• Tenpenny, the keynote speaker, told legislators in Ohio in 2021 that the COVID-19 vaccine could make people magnetic and suggested that vaccines interact with 5G towers - both unfounded claims. She was listed as one of 12 anti-vaccine activists responsible for almost two-thirds of anti-vaccine content on social media that year by the Center for Countering Digital Hate, which called them the Disinformation Dozen.

• Holland, CEO of Kennedy's nonprofit Children's Health Defense, claimed in an interview with Politico that mumps, measles, and rubella are not particularly dangerous to children, contrary to extensive medical evidence.

• On Steve Bannon's War Room, Holland compared mandated vaccines to slavery. The group hosting the gala calls her a "courageous health freedom leader."

• Holley, a former Democratic Assembly member from Union County, was described by Politico in 2020 as "New Jersey Democrats' most high profile anti-vaccination activist." The gala organization calls him "a powerful voice for the MAHA movement."

• Sherrill said in a statement that she is "appalled that Jack is taking his cues from fringe activists, conspiracy theorists, and the likes of Donald Trump and RFK, Jr. whose extreme policies will result in reduced access to vaccines and more of our children catching preventable illnesses."

• "People are getting sick because of politicians like Jack who campaign with anti-vaxxers and spread dangerous lies about our public health, and it's clear we can't trust him to keep our kids safe and healthy," she added.