U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill on Tuesday was elected governor of New Jersey, shoring up Democratic management of a state that has been reliably blue in presidential and Senate contests however had proven indicators of shifting rightward lately.
Sherrill, a former Navy helicopter pilot and four-term member of Congress, defeated Jack Ciattarelli, who was endorsed by President Donald Trump.
Sherrill, 53, gives some reassurance for moderates throughout the Democratic Get together as they navigate the trail ahead for subsequent 12 months’s midterms. A former prosecutor and army veteran, Sherrill embodies a model of centrist Democrats who intention to enchantment to some conservatives whereas nonetheless aligning with some progressive causes. She campaigned on standing as much as Trump and casting blame for voters’ considerations over the economic system on his tariffs.
She shall be New Jersey’s second feminine governor, after Republican Christine Todd Whitman, who served between 1994 and 2001. Her victory additionally offers Democrats three straight gubernatorial election wins in New Jersey, the primary time in six many years that both main get together has achieved a three-peat.
Ciattarelli misplaced his second straight governor’s election after coming inside a couple of factors of defeating incumbent Gov. Phil Murphy 4 years in the past.
Republican candidate for governor Jack Ciattarelli speaks to supporters on Oct. 30.
New Jersey’s odd-year race for governor, one in all simply two this 12 months together with Virginia, typically hinged on native points equivalent to property taxes. However the marketing campaign additionally served as a possible gauge of nationwide sentiment, particularly how voters are reacting to the president’s second time period and Democrats’ messaging forward of the 2026 midterm elections.
Within the closing weeks of the marketing campaign, Sherrill lambasted the president’s menace to cancel a challenge to construct new rail tunnels beneath the Hudson River to interchange the getting older, disintegrating tubes now utilized by trains headed to and from New York Metropolis. She additionally pledged to order a freeze on electrical utility charges, which have just lately soared.
Sherrill steps into the governorship position after serving 4 phrases within the U.S. Home. She received that publish in 2018 throughout Trump’s first time period in workplace, flipping a longtime GOP-held district in an election that noticed Democrats sweep all however one of many state’s 12 Home seats.
Sherrill mentioned the punishment was a results of not handing over some classmates, not as a result of she herself had cheated. However she declined to launch further data that the Ciattarelli marketing campaign mentioned would shed extra mild on the problem.
Mikie Sherrill takes a photograph with a supporter after they each voted in Montclair, N.J., on Nov. 4.
For her half, she accused Ciattarelli of profiting off the opioid disaster. He’s the previous proprietor of a medical publishing firm that made persevering with training supplies for docs, together with some that mentioned ache administration and opioids. Sherrill referred to as it “propaganda” for drug firms, one thing Ciattarelli denied.
Sherrill will inherit a state price range that swelled beneath Murphy, who delivered on guarantees to fund the general public employee pension fund and a Okay-12 college assist components after years of neglect beneath earlier governors, by excessive revenue taxes on the rich. However there are additionally headwinds that embrace unfunded guarantees to proceed a property tax aid program begun within the governor’s second time period.
Additionally on the poll Tuesday have been all 80 seats within the Meeting, which Democrats management with a 52-seat majority.
New Jersey hasn’t supported a Republican for U.S. Senate or the White Home in many years. The governor’s workplace, although, has typically switched backwards and forwards between the events. The final time the identical get together prevailed in a 3rd straight New Jersey election for governor was in 1961, when Richard Hughes received the race to succeed Gov. Robert Meyner. Each have been Democrats.
