Former “Saturday Night Live” star Joe Piscopo is considering a run for governor in New Jersey. (Mel Evans/AP)

The appeal of Donald Trump-style populism could soon be tested by another celebrity candidate with no governing experience: Joe Piscopo.

The former “Saturday Night Live” cast member best known for his impersonation of Frank Sinatra is “very close” to jumping into the New Jersey governor’s race, inspired in part by his interactions with “real Americans” while on the campaign trail with Trump.

“The journey has laid itself out, and I see there’s a lot of support for someone like me to get in,” said Piscopo, now a conservative talk-radio personality, adding that he would run as an outsider focused on economic issues.

He even has a possible slogan: “Piscopo for the people.”

Piscopo’s possible bid reflects the maneuvering in New Jersey and Virginia — the two states with gubernatorial contests this year — by candidates from both parties, who are trying to capitalize on lessons learned from Trump’s strong performance among working-class voters.

In the Republican primaries in both states, candidates have adopted Trump’s positions on issues such as taxes and immigration. And some are mimicking him in other ways.

The website of one GOP long shot in the Garden State — where candidates are vying to replace the scandal-tarnished Gov. Chris Christie (R) — proclaims he would “Make NJ Great Again.” In the four-candidate field for governor in Virginia, one of the more colorful candidates, Corey Stewart, served as state chairman of Trump’s campaign and is touting that years ago he advocated tough immigration policies such as those being advanced by the president.

“I was Trump before Trump was Trump,” boasts Stewart, the chairman of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors.

In the Democratic contests in both states, there are distinct echoes of Bernie Sanders, the iconoclastic senator from Vermont who proved a far stronger challenger than expected to Hillary Clinton as he railed against Wall Street and the “billionaire class,” and laid out a populist agenda aimed at lifting working-class families.

Several Democrats in New Jersey and Virginia have taken on the mantle of issues championed by Sanders, such as raising the minimum wage to $15, making public colleges and universities free and moving to a single-payer health-care system.

One Garden State candidate, Assemblyman John S. Wisniewski, who gained national attention by leading an investigation into Christie’s “Bridgegate” scandal, has done more than borrow Sanders’s rhetoric.

His campaign manager directed Sanders’s presidential efforts in four states. Wisniewski also has hired the same media consultant as Sanders and is using the same pollster and digital media company.

“I don’t think people are necessarily trying to be Bernie, but the issues he talked about are central talking points,” said Tad Devine, Sanders’s media consultant, who is advising Wisniewski. “That’s the most powerful message in these elections, to be the candidate who’s standing up for people on core economic issues.”

Clinton carried both New Jersey and Virginia last year, so there are potential pitfalls for Republican candidates who embrace Trump too tightly. That has created a challenging dynamic for some hopefuls, including Ed Gillespie, the GOP front-runner in Virginia, who is a past chairman of the Republican National Committee.

Gillespie, who was initially cool to Trump, has faced Trump-like name-calling by Stewart as “Establishment Ed.”

Despite sagging job approval numbers nationally, Trump remains popular among the Republican base, so there’s an incentive, analysts say, to play up similarities during competitive GOP primaries. Some caution, however, that replicating Trump’s candidacy could be a difficult act for anyone else to pull off.

“What we’ll see is a landscape with many Trump wannabes without his personality and branding ability,” said John Weaver, a GOP strategist who worked on the presidential campaign of Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R).

New Jersey Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno (R), who is seeking to succeed Christie, made no mention of Trump during a forum here hosted by a commercial real estate development association. Instead, Guadagno played up her accessibility — she is known in New Jersey for making her cellphone number widely available — and her record of slashing business regulations.

In an interview, Guadagno, who also is calling for a middle-class tax cut, said Trump has provided inspiration in some ways and that she would welcome an appearance by him on her behalf.

“The lesson to take away is people care about their pocketbooks,” Guadagno said.

Another Republican hopeful, Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli, made multiple mentions of Trump when it was his turn to address the group.

“Trump keeps it simple, in ways that resonate and make sense,” Ciattarelli said.

He also told a story with some Trumpian bluster that involved a member of the clergy who described New Jersey as “a humble valley in the shadow of New York and Philadelphia.”

“When the event was over, I went up to the clergy and kicked him right in the shins,” Ciattarelli said. “We are a cultural, economic and intellectual powerhouse-in-waiting and we are not going to be second-rate, second-class or junior varsity to anybody.”

‘Organic and real’

Probably no one in the race is better positioned to carry the Trump flag than Piscopo, who said that campaigning with Trump in Florida last year was “a life-changer.”

Piscopo, a onetime “Blue Dog Democrat,” said he plans to campaign as a populist and will focus on the high cost of living in New Jersey. He said he probably will enter the race as a Republican, although he also is considering an independent bid.

Piscopo, whose heyday on “Saturday Night Live” was in the 1980s, said he is hardly a carbon copy of Trump.

“The difference between Donald Trump and me is roughly 10 billion dollars,” he said. “I’m in the blue-collar show business.”

Piscopo added that he has no plans to call his opponents names, as Trump did.

In his fourth year as a radio host on New York’s AM 970, Piscopo said the gig has served as “an Ivy League political science class,” given the range of subjects and the guests he has hosted. That list includes Trump and two top White House officials, Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and counselor Kellyanne Conway.

The Democratic primary in the state has echoes of the presidential contest between Clinton and Sanders.

Phil Murphy, a former U.S. ambassador to Germany and former finance chairman of the Democratic National Committee, has emerged as the favorite of the Democratic establishment and has a sizable fundraising lead.

Wisniewski, meanwhile, has attacked Murphy for his work as a Goldman Sachs executive, a tactic reminiscent of Sanders’s broadsides against Clinton for having given paid speeches to Wall Street banks behind closed doors.

At a recent forum, Wisniewski also made a Sanders-esque argument about why the party needs to embrace a progressive as its standard-bearer.

“The Democratic Party needs to nominate candidates who represent the hopes and the dreams of the working men and women of New Jersey,” he said.

Another Democrat in the race, Assemblyman Raymond J. Lesniak, has also played up his anti-establishment credentials.

Murphy has hardly ceded the progressive label to his challengers, pushing several issues that were part of Sanders’s platform, including a $15 minimum wage and equal pay for equal work.

He also trotted out an endorsement by Levi Sanders, the senator’s son. Wisniewski immediately countered by announcing the backing of Jeff Weaver, Sanders’s presidential campaign manager.

Sanders has yet to weigh in on the race.

The Democratic primary in Virginia also has some Sanders flavor.

Former congressman Tom Perriello hired as his campaign manager Julia Barnes, who ran the New Hampshire campaign for Sanders and later served as his national field director. Revolution Messaging, which ran Sanders’s digital advertising and online fundraising, is playing a similar role in Virginia for Perriello.

Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam, who has locked up the support of much of the state’s Democratic establishment, has drawn some comparisons to Clinton. But both candidates have been tacking to the left in recent weeks, on issues including marijuana decriminalization.

Although Sanders and Trump share little in common on public policy, the eagerness of candidates to associate with them is a reflection of how large they loom on the political landscape. And at least one hopeful was eager to praise them both.

“How similar were Bernie and Donald Trump?” said Piscopo, who has had the senator from Vermont on his radio show. “They were both organic and real.”