Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill, the Democratic candidate for governor of New Jersey, catapulted to victory on November 4 on the strength of her opposition to President Dona;d Trump after a hard-fought race against Jack Ciattarelli, a Republican whose energetic campaign could not outrun national politics in a liberal-leaning state. Congresswoman Sherrill, a former Navy helicopter pilot and federal prosecutor, will become New Jersey’s 57th governor and its second female leader. She was leading Ciattarelli, a former state lawmaker running his third race for governor, by a resounding 13 points with more than 95 percent of the vote counted, according to a tally by The Associated Press.
“Good government doesn’t just manage problems, it solves them,” Governor-elect Mikie Sherrill told supporters gathered in East Brunswick for a victory party. “I know not everyone voted for me,” she added, “but I’m working for everyone — every single one of you.” She said Jack Ciattarelli called her soon after the results were announced, and she recognized him for “stepping up.” Ciattarelli, in a brief concession speech, told his supporters that “life is not always fair.” “Nobody is more disappointed than I am in the result,” he said. “It is my hope that Mikie Sherrill has heard us, in terms of what needs to be done to make New Jersey that place where everybody wants to be to achieve their dreams again.” The race was largely defined by President Donald Trump, who made surprising inroads last November in New Jersey and who had endorsed Jack Ciattarelli. But in a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans by roughly 850,000 voters, the alliance always carried risk.
Senator Cory Booker predicted that Mike Sherrill’s win would ripple far beyond New Jersey. “The whole nation will see,” said Booker, the state’s senior senator, “that we can’t stop the momentum.” Governor-elect Sherrill will now have to at least coexist with the president, who has shown a willingness to punish his foes. That was an argument President Donald Trump raised in the final weeks of the campaign, in a telephone rally he held for Jack Ciattarelli. “He’s got a friend in the White House,” the President said during the call, “where she certainly doesn’t.”
Governor-elect Mikie Sherrill has pledged to freeze the state’s high electricity costs by declaring a state of emergency on her first day in office in January. She plans to get cellphones out of classrooms and hire more mental health counselors for schools. Using data gathered through a new “social media addiction observatory,” she has said, her administration will take on digital platforms that use algorithms to lure in children and teenagers.
In the 2021 campaign, Jack Ciattarelli lost by three points to Governor Phil Murphy, a Democrat barred by term limits from running for re-election. He tried hard during this race to capitalize on the stunning gains President Donald Trump made in Black and Latino communities, campaigning aggressively in churches and at cultural events. Ciattarelli develped a reputation as a moderate Republican during his time on the Somerset County board of Freeholders (2007-2011) and in the New Jersey General Assembly (2012-2018), and until this campaign he had kept President Trump at arm’s length. But after the president’s stronger-than-expected showing last year in some of New Jersey’s most diverse communities, Ciattarelli pivoted, embracing the president and some of his policies, even giving Trump an “A” grade in the final debate.
Jack Ciattarelli’a platform was focused heavily on pocketbook issues like taxes and energy costs. But Ciattarelli also leaned into issues popular with the far-right flank of the party, including publicly funded school vouchers, opposition to transgender rights, vaccine skepticism and the deportation of migrants. On the stump and in ads, Mikie Sherrill’s campaign regularly reminded voters of Ciattarelli’s cozy relationship with President Donald Trump. Then, last month, President Donald Trump said he was terminating funding for the construction of a $16 billion train tunnel considered vital to the country and to New Jersey’s 200,000 commuters, handing the Sherrill campaign an unexpected gift. “With less than 19 days until this election, the president’s punched him in the face like this. That’s pretty telling,” Sherrill said the next day, highlighting the ephemeral value of Ciattarelli’s partnership with a mercurial president. It also gave her a way to change the subject from a controversy centered on why she had been barred from participating in her 1994 graduation ceremony at the US Naval Academy. She has said that she could not participate because she had failed to “turn in” classmates caught up in a cheating scandal. But polls began to narrow as Ciattarelli publicly challenged that explanation and sought to undermine her credibility, denting a central pillar of her campaign: that nine years in the Navy had prepared her to lead the state.
Polls proved largely inaccurate. Most showed Mikie Sherrill leading throughout the race, but few had her winning by a double-digit margin. Only New Jersey and Virginia hold races for governor the year after a presidential contest, and the results are considered bellwethers heading into next year’s pivotal midterm elections, which will determine party control of Congress. In Virginia, former Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger beat her Republican opponent, Lt. Governor Winsome Earle-Sears, by 15 points; Spanberger will be the first woman to serve as governor of the state.
Ken Martin, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee who came to New Jersey repeatedly during the campaign, said victories in both states represent “the beginning of our Democratic resurgence” and proved that voters are “tired of watching the G.O.P. turn our beloved country into a playground for billionaires.” “Tonight isn’t only a warning sign to Republicans,” he said in a statement, “it’s an affirmation of the vision that Democrats have presented to voters in New Jersey and across the country.”
New Jersey’s race was always seen as far more competitive. And Mikie Sherrill’s campaign had become a cause célèbre for Democrat-aligned national groups, which committed roughly $25 million to help her win. An array of prominent Democratic leaders also traveled to New Jersey to campaign with Sherrill in the final weeks of the race. On November 1, an appearance by former President Barack Obama drew thousands of party faithful to a large gymnasium at a community college in Newark. He energized the crowd by warning, as Sherrill has, about the threat posed by President Donald Trump. “We’ve got a commander in chief who has fired decorated military officers because he thinks they might be more loyal to the Constitution than they are to him,” Obama said. “He’s deployed the National Guard in American cities and claimed to be stopping crime waves that don’t actually exist,” he added. “We’ve got masked ICE agents pulling up in unmarked vans and grabbing people off the streets.” “Don’t boo,” Obama said repeatedly as the crowd roared. “Go vote.”
More than 3.1 million New Jersey voters cast ballots, 500,000 more than in 2021. Jack Ciattarelli’s level of support this year actually exceeded his performance in 2021 by more than 100,000 votes, but he still fell short as far more voters beat a path to the polls. “I’m not retiring to Florida. We fight for another day,” Ciattarelli said to loud cheers. “You’ll find me right here on the streets of Central Jersey, or maybe at one of my favorite places on the beach in Surf City.”
The contest was the most competitive race for governor of New Jersey since 2009, when Chris Christie, a Republican, unseated the incumbent governor, Jon Corzine, a wealthy Democrat. It was also extraordinarily expensive. Mikie Sherrill and Jack Ciattarelli won their party’s nominations after spirited primaries. The state’s Election Law Enforcement Commission reported last week that spending by the two candidates and groups supporting their candidacies had already exceeded $82 million. In winning, Sherrill bucked a six-decade historical trend. Not since 1961 had either party held onto the governor’s office for three consecutive terms.
