Mikie Sherrill soars to governorship

Perhaps she was unstoppable.

Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-Montclair) defeated Republican former Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli for New Jersey’s governorship, the New Jersey Globe projects, securing Democratic control of the governorship for a third straight term.

The four-term congresswoman largely centered her campaign on her résumé as a Navy helicopter pilot and said that, as governor, she would stand up to President Donald Trump. As of 9:54 p.m., Sherrill leads Ciattarelli 56.3%-43.1%, with about 78% of the expected vote counted.

In her victory speech, Sherrill framed her victory as a rebuke to Trump — “We take oaths to a Constitution, not a king,” she said.

“This was a tough fight, and this is a tough state,” Sherrill proclaimed to the crowd. “But I know you, New Jersey. I have fought for you. I’ve spoken with thousands of you over this last year. I know your struggles, I know your hopes, I know your dreams. So serving you is worth any tough fight I have to take on, and I am so incredibly honored to be your next governor.”

Ciattarelli conceded in a speech to supporters at his Election Night headquarters in Bridgewater.

“It is my hope that Mikie Sherrill has heard us in terms of what we need to do to make New Jersey that place, where everybody can once again feel they can achieve their American Dream,” he said.

Throughout the campaign, she accused Ciattarelli of being little more than a puppet for the president, labeling him the “Trump of Trenton.” She’s promised to fight “tooth and nail” to protect the Gateway Tunnel project, which Trump says he has “terminated.” 

Sherrill is the first Democratic woman elected governor in New Jersey and the first nominee to win a third consecutive term for their respective party since the 1960s. She will succeed fellow Democrat Phil Murphy, one of the most progressive governors in the state’s history. Centenary University President Dale Caldwell will assume the lieutenant governorship.

Polls mostly showed Sherrill with a modest but consistent lead throughout the autumn, though Democrats were wary after the polling miss of 2021, when Ciattarelli came within three points of defeating Murphy.

A mainstream Democrat, Sherrill has promised at least one aggressive executive action on the first day of her governorship: She vowed to declare a state of emergency over electricity prices to freeze utility rates. She hasn’t specified what mechanisms she’ll use to achieve that freeze, and Murphy has expressed some doubts that it can be achieved.

Questions remain about how Sherrill will handle some prominent issues. She has declined to say whether she will keep the Immigrant Trust Directive, a 2018 order that generally bars New Jersey police officers from cooperating with federal agents on civil immigration enforcement.

The race was the most expensive in the state’s history, even without accounting for some late-stage spending. With Murphy’s slim 2021 victory in mind, national Democrats invested at least $25 million into the race, setting records trying to keep New Jersey blue. National Republicans, hopeful after Ciattarelli’s strong 2021 and Donald Trump’s strong 2024 in the Garden State, sent at least $13 million into the state. Independent groups funneled further millions into the state, and each campaign had $18.5 million to work with.

Though a bumpy campaign, Sherrill never lost her status as front-runner. Ciattarelli has repeatedly attacked her over the revelation that she wasn’t allowed to walk with her graduating class at the Naval Academy as part of the fallout from an infamous cheating scandal. Sherrill has said she was disciplined for refusing to turn in her classmates, though she has refused to release disciplinary records to back the story up.

The same day, it was reported that the National Archives improperly provided an ally of the Ciattarelli campaign a mostly unredacted copy of her personnel file; the Archives has said it was a technician’s error, but Sherrill and other Democrats have accused the Trump administration of weaponizing the government against her.

The attacks, though, failed to make a serious dent in her approval ratings.

Though Sherrill was the consistent front-runner, her candidacy worried progressives, some of whom considered her “milquetoast,” and some Democratic leaders, who thought her candidacy was too scripted. But her bio-focused, anti-Trump campaign was enough to motivate Democrats and keep New Jersey blue.

This was Ciattarelli’s third run for governor. He didn’t earn the Republican nomination in 2017, but his surprisingly close loss to Murphy in 2021 turned Ciattarelli into something like a blue-state GOP star, and he easily won renomination this summer. After keeping Trump at arm’s length in 2021, he increasingly embraced the president this year; while that earned him Trump’s endorsement, it also opened him up to attacks tying him to the increasingly unpopular president.

Sherrill largely coasted through the Democratic primary this summer, when she led every poll on her way to a 13-point victory over runner-up Newark Mayor Ras Baraka. Party leaders embraced her as a strong candidate, and Democratic voters embraced her as a respected public servant.

She selected Caldwell, a Methodist pastor and a former school board member in New Brunswick, as her running mate in July. Caldwell will be the first male lieutenant governor — the position was established for the 2009 election, and has since been filled with women. Caldwell will lead a cabinet department, though the Sherrill campaign hasn’t yet specified which one.

Sherrill’s political career began in 2017, when she launched a campaign in the 11th congressional district against GOP Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen. After strong polling and fundraising for Sherrill, Frelinghuysen, a twelve-term incumbent, opted for retirement, clearing the way for an easy Sherrill victory. She began her career as a moderate member of the Blue Dog Caucus but embraced more mainstream Democratic politics as she set her sights on statewide office.

Now, the work begins. Much like her predecessor, Sherrill lacks state government experience, and she’ll quickly be thrown into the work of cobbling together a budget with Democratic legislative leaders. She also must fill her cabinet, including an attorney general, who will surely continue the stream of lawsuits filed against the Trump administration. Sherrill is expected to replace Attorney General Matt Platkin, who has grown adversarial to many party bosses in the state.

She also must decide when to step down from Congress. An earlier resignation would allow an earlier special election, but it would mean one fewer Democratic vote during the tense government shutdown. There’s also movement in the state Legislature to change the timeline, though legislators have yet to offer a concrete bill.

But tonight, she can celebrate.

“We’ve chosen liberty, the very foundation of democracy, and we’ve chosen prosperity, necessary to create opportunity for all,” Sherrill said in her victory speech. “So, New Jersey, to quote the Boss: ‘The future is now. Roll up your sleeves and let your passion flow. The country we carry in our hearts is waiting.’”

This story is developing and will be updated.