Gov. Mikie Sherrill has no plans to redraw New Jersey’s congressional districts to help two newly elected Democrats win second terms in 2028, even though both will represent Republican-leaning districts that could be difficult to hold in a presidential year without Donald Trump on the ballot.
In an interview with the New Jersey Globe on Wednesday, Sherrill said congressional redistricting before the next election is effectively off the table after a historic Democratic wave ousted two Republican incumbents.
“I don’t see a path forward for redistricting right now,” Sherrill said.
That means Rep.-elect Zachary Mullock (D-Cape May), who ousted four-term Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-Dennis) by three percentage points, and Rep.-elect Rebecca Bennett (D-Bridgewater), who defeated two-term Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R-Westfield) by 16 points, will likely need to defend their seats under the existing congressional map.
Mullock’s victory came in the biggest Democratic wave election in New Jersey since 1974, when the Watergate scandal helped Democrats make enormous gains in traditionally Republican territory.
The 2nd district remains Republican on paper, and the 7th district was hardly considered safe Democratic territory before Tuesday’s landslide. Just one year ago, Sherrill carried the 7th district by only two points in her gubernatorial race, and Trump won it by one point in 2024. She lost Mullock’s district by seven points
Sherrill had previously left open the possibility of mid-decade redistricting as a response to Republican efforts to redraw congressional maps in other states.
But the governor now sees little reason to pursue that strategy.
“I think it was only on the table in the event Trump really continued to try to undermine the election system,” she said.
Sherrill suggested that Republican redistricting efforts elsewhere had largely backfired.
“Even in the areas where Trump gerrymandered, I’m not sure they won any of those seats. Very few, if any,” she said. “And so it didn’t really work.”
She also cited the courts’ unfavorable treatment of some redistricting efforts.
“Especially with picking up those two seats, I just don’t think that’s the path forward here,” Sherrill said.
The governor was exuberant about Tuesday’s election results, which saw Democrats capture two Republican-held House seats, make substantial gains in county government, and flip dozens of Republican-held municipal offices.
The Democratic victories extended into some of New Jersey’s most reliably Republican communities, including Morris County — her old congressional district — where Democrats won a county commissioner seat for the first time since the Watergate era.
Sherrill said the results reminded her of the Democratic congressional wave in 2018, when she first won election to the House.
“What seems to happen in these big fights, these big battles really of ideals, is that it really brings out some great candidates,” she said. “I think we saw that in 2018. I think you saw it again in this election cycle.”
She said Democrats had done more than benefit from an anti-Republican wave.
“It’s not just that we won everywhere, it’s that we won with some really great candidates that I’m very impressed with,” she said.
Sherrill also pointed to Democratic gains nationally, singling out Gina Hinojosa’s victory in the Texas gubernatorial race as particularly impressive.
She said she helped raise approximately $500,000 for Hinojosa and a Democratic candidate in Wisconsin, and directed additional resources toward Texas during the final weeks of the campaign.
Sherrill believes Trump will remain a dominant political issue in 2027, particularly as Republican-backed changes to health care programs and federal spending begin taking effect.
“A lot of the horrible things that Trump has put in place and the Republicans legislated on come into effect after January,” she said, pointing to Medicaid cuts and changes to the Affordable Care Act.
She predicted those policies would become major issues when the new Democratic-controlled Congress takes office on January 3.
“Trump will still, I think, be looming large because of the destruction of working people’s economies,” Sherrill said.
She also suggested that some Republicans might begin distancing themselves from Trump following Tuesday’s defeats, citing former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley’s election-night commentary.
For New Jersey Democrats, Sherrill said the challenge now is to translate their electoral success into a governing agenda focused on affordability, housing, health care, energy and childcare.
She believes the policies her administration has pursued with the Democratic-controlled Legislature could become a model for Democrats elsewhere.
“I think you’re going to see that in other states,” Sherrill said. “But I also think you’re going to see it at the federal level.”
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