Democrat Steven Fulop won’t run for New Jersey governor in 2017 (video)

Democrat Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop, who many thought would run for governor, made it clear he won’t be a candidate. 

“Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about what (is) in the best interest for Jersey City, what’s the best interest of the state of New Jersey and where I am situated that I could be most meaningfully helpful to moving an agenda forward that’s progressive… I just wanted to make unequivocally clear that I’ll be running for re-election for Jersey City,” said Fulop. 

He also is throwing his support to Democrat Phil Murphy for governor, who he called a good friend. 

Fulop made the announcement Wednesday at City Hall with Murphy. 

Republican Governor Chris Christie is finishing his second and final term in office, which ends January 16, 2018.

The announcement comes amid the trial of two former allies of Republican Gov. Chris Christie who are accused of creating traffic jams on the George Washington Bridge to punish the Democratic mayor of Fort Lee for not endorsing Christie’s 2013 re-election bid.

Fulop has been mentioned during the trial, and he’s expected to testify. The government’s key witness said the Christie administration ordered that officials not meet with Fulop because he didn’t endorse Christie.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.