Sherrill Wins Nj Gov

Democratic Rep. Mikie Sherrill won the race for New Jersey governor Tuesday night, capitalizing on an anti-Trump sentiment to deliver her party a much-needed victory after last year’s losses up and down the ballot.

The Associated Press called the race a little before 9:30 p.m. for Sherrill over Republican Jack Ciattarelli, a former member of the state Assembly who was making his third run for governor. She will succeed term-limited Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy, giving Democrats a third term in a row in the governor’s mansion — a feat that has not been accomplished in the Garden State since 1961.

Sherrill will also be the second female governor in New Jersey history. The first was Republican Christine Todd Whitman.

Both parties have been closely watching this year’s gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia to provide a pulse check on the electorate before the midterms. Democrat Abigail Spanberger won in Virginia.

Sherrill’s win is a boon for Democrats, who lost ground in the state last year despite the party’s large voter registration advantage. President Donald Trump came 6 points shy of winning New Jersey in 2024 — compared to his 16-point loss in 2020 — due in part to gains he made among Black and Hispanic voters.

A fuller picture of how well Sherrill performed among those blocs that Democrats struggled with last year will emerge as more returns come in.

Most polling showed Sherrill with a single-digit lead over Ciattarelli, and the contest was expected to be competitive — especially after Ciattarelli had a surprisingly narrow loss against Murphy in 2021. But in a diversion from his previous campaign, Ciattarelli ran more explicitly in line with Trump, whose closer than expected loss in 2024 emboldened New Jersey Republicans.

Trump endorsed Ciattarelli ahead of the June primary, and in the leadup to the November election hosted two telerallies for him and frequently promoted him on Truth Social — though he did not come to the state for one of his signature in-person rallies. Although the president could have boosted enthusiasm among the GOP base, his low approval rating in the state might have alienated some of the unaffiliated voters Ciattarelli needed to court.

Sherrill and her Democratic allies made the bet that Ciattarelli’s association to Trump would drag him down at the polls. Throughout the campaign, she sought to position herself as a bulwark to the Trump administration and tied Ciattarelli to the president — a strategy that Ciattarelli often criticized for not focusing enough on New Jersey-specific issues. Ciattarelli prided his campaign on him being from New Jersey; Sherrill was born in Virginia.

But that anti-Trump messaging — including the repeated refrain from Trump’s endorsement that Ciattarelli is “100 percent MAGA” — apparently resonated with voters to give Sherrill a win. She consistently hammered Ciattarelli over his support for Trump, pointing to the administration’s tariffs and Trump saying that funding for the Gateway project that would build a tunnel between New Jersey and New York is "terminated.”

Growing concerns about affordability — including skyrocketing energy costs — also drove much of the messaging in the race, with Sherrill arguing that the Trump administration was to blame and Ciattarelli pointing the finger at Democrats who have controlled state government for nearly a decade. One of Sherrill’s key policy proposals is to declare a state of emergency on her first day as governor to freeze utility costs, an initiative that has been met with some skepticism, including from Murphy.

A parade of high-profile Democrats came out to boost Sherrill in the final days of the campaign, including former President Barack Obama, former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Govs. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, Wes Moore of Maryland and Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, among others.

The final weeks of the campaign turned much more aggressive and personal on both sides. Ciattarelli accused Sherrill of not being truthful about why she did not walk at her Naval Academy graduation, which she said was because she did not turn in her classmates who cheated on an exam. And Sherrill charged that Ciattarelli worked with the Trump administration to release her improperly redacted personal information. His campaign denied that allegation, and an investigation is underway.

Sherrill also said that Ciattarelli killed “tens of thousands of people” when his publishing business put out materials that downplayed the impacts of opioids. Ciattarelli said he is going to sue her for defamation over the claim.

After emerging from a crowded six-person primary in June, Sherrill — one of the more moderate Democrats in the running for governor — had to work to unite the fractured Democratic base. Some left-leaning Democrats expressed frustrations throughout her campaign that she did not share clear stances on hot-button issues like immigrant protections and transgender health care for minors.

Sherrill was first elected to Congress in the 2018 “blue wave,” boosted by an anti-Trump sentiment that helped Democrats pick up the open seat previously held by a Republican. Prior to serving in the House, she was a federal prosecutor and a Navy helicopter pilot — a biography that she leaned heavily on throughout the campaign.

Once Sherrill vacates her seat in Congress, a special election will be held to succeed her in the Democratic-leaning 11th District. A crowd of Democrats have already announced their intentions to run, including former Obama administration staffer Cammie Croft, Morris Township Deputy Mayor Jeff Grayzel, progressive activist Anna Lee Williams and Chatham Borough Council Member Justin Strickland. Former Rep. Tom Malinowski also indicated he is interested.