Parsippany, NJ
CNN
—
Mikie Sherrill, a four-term Democratic congresswoman, and former Republican state Rep. Jack Ciattarelli have won their parties’ nominations for New Jersey governor, according to projections from CNN’s Decision Desk.
Tuesday’s results have set the stage for one of this year’s two competitive gubernatorial races, along with Virginia, that will serve as a key barometer of President Donald Trump’s job performance and a gauge of the energy in both parties ahead of next year’s midterm elections.
Already, the president has been a central figure in both candidates’ campaigns.
Sherrill, a former Navy helicopter pilot, bested five other candidates who all ran as fighters who would push back on the chaos of Washington. Ciattarelli, who narrowly lost a 2021 gubernatorial bid, won the nomination again with the help of Trump’s endorsement.
New Jersey voters have consistently picked the gubernatorial candidate from the party out of power in Washington in recent decades with one exception – Murphy was re-elected in 2021, one year after Joe Biden won the presidency.
At the same time, New Jersey is among the states that shifted to the right during the 2024 general election. Vice President Kamala Harris won the state by just six percentage points in 2024, four years after Biden won the state by nearly 16 points.
Running against Trump’s policies is familiar territory for Sherrill, who has been seen as a rising star in the party ever since she won a longtime GOP seat during the president’s first term in office.
Before launching her first congressional campaign in 2017, Sherrill spent nearly a decade in the Navy and briefly worked as a federal prosecutor. The political novice was among dozens of Democrats, many of them women, who ran on their records of public service and national security experience to harness anti-Trump sentiment. Sherrill defeated her opponent, Republican state Assemblyman Jay Webber, by nearly 15 points.
Though she was part of the same freshman class as Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other liberal members of “The Squad,” Sherrill aligned herself with a moderate group of newly elected Democrats who had also ousted Republican lawmakers. She joined the centrist New Democrat and conservative Blue Dog coalitions in the Democratic caucus, and was part of block of Democrats with national security and military experience who helped generate broad support for Trump’s first impeachment.
Sherrill’s platform centered on lowering costs for New Jersey voters and portraying herself as a fighter who would take on Trump.
“If you work with this guy, if you acquiesce, if you give up on your values so you can somehow gain a little traction today, you’re going to find in the future that you’ve given up everything.” Sherrill said at a primary debate last month. “What you’re hearing from all of us is, no, this is not a federal government you can work with.”
Sherrill was seen as a front-runner in the weeks leading up to Tuesday’s six-candidate Democratic primary.
The other Democratic candidates were Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, former state Senate president Steve Sweeney, New Jersey Education Association president Sean Spiller and Rep. Josh Gottheimer.
Her opponents highlighted donations she received from the Elon Musk-owned SpaceX’s political action committee during her congressional runs and her endorsements from county Democratic committees.
Whether Ciattarelli can be successful in November will likely depend on his ability to turn out voters loyal to Trump while also expanding support with people who have not embraced the president and his agenda.
“As a party, it’s time for us to now speak directly to the people of New Jersey – to independents and unaffiliated voters who may have lost faith in both political parties and wonder whether their vote even matters anymore, to moderate Democrats who feel abandoned, alienated and ignored by an extreme and out of touch, ultraliberal Democratic Party in Trenton and Washington, DC,” Ciattarelli told supporters at his victory party Tuesday night.
Support for Trump was a point of contention in advertisements and during feisty debates. Ciattarelli and conservative radio host Bill Spadea repeatedly sparred over their allegiance to the president, seizing on past criticisms they had each leveled at Trump at various points in their long record of public commentary.
“Bill Spadea attacks Donald Trump,” intoned one ad from Ciattarelli, seizing on soundbites of Spadea suggesting Trump shouldn’t run in 2024. “Loyalty matters to President Trump,” Spadea said in one of his ads, replaying comments from Ciattarelli criticizing Trump amid his rise during the 2016 campaign.
Jon Bramnick, a more moderate candidate, didn’t compete for Trump’s endorsement the same way. He remarked at a February debate: “Do you think the people of New Jersey want the debate to be who loves Donald Trump the most, or who loves New Jersey the most?”
The attacks continued even after Trump endorsed Ciattarelli in a social media post with about a month left in the race. “Jack, who after getting to know and understand MAGA, has gone ALL IN, and is now 100% (PLUS!),” Trump wrote. “As your next Governor, Jack Ciattarelli will work closely with me and the Trump Administration to advance our America First Agenda.”
“You’re going to hear, I’m sure, a lot about a certain endorsement that happened last week,” Spadea said at the final debate a week after the post. “You might even hear some bragging.” He went on, “Let me be very clear: the president endorsed a poll, a poll that was conducted and paid for by Jack’s campaign.”
But Ciattarelli responded by proudly wielding Trump’s support. “President Trump endorsed me because he knows I’m the only person that can unify our party, he endorsed me because of the energy I bring to the campaign, he endorsed me because of the money we’re able to raise to deliver a win,” he said.
The GOP primary also showcased the key issues that some blue-state Republicans are emphasizing in their argument to voters, including immigration, crime, and government spending.
At one debate, Ciattarelli called for a New Jersey “equivalent” to DOGE – “that’s what we need in the state of New Jersey,” he remarked.