TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill won the Democratic primary in New Jersey’s race for governor, emerging from a crowded field of experienced rivals on the strength of her biography as a Navy pilot and former prosecutor who has been a vocal critic of President Donald Trump.
Sherrill defeated five rivals, including a fellow House member, the mayors of the state’s two biggest cities, a former top state legislator and the head of the influential teacher’s union. She will face the Republican nominee, Jack Ciattarelli, in the November general election.
The general election will undoubtedly cover New Jersey issues, like the high cost of living and sky high property taxes. It also sets up a test for the president, who waded into the contest on Ciattarelli's side.
She becomes the Democrats’ standard-bearer at a time when the state party is looking to win the governorship for a third straight term and the national party is looking for leadership and a message that resonates with voters.
New Jersey is one of two states with a governor’s race this year — the other is Virginia — and could give both parties the chance to test strategies ahead of next year’s high-stakes midterm elections.
Sherrill built her campaign around her personal story — a Naval Academy graduate who flew choppers for the Navy, Sherrill went on to work as a federal prosecutor in New Jersey. She first ran for office in 2018, during the midterm election in Trump’s first term, winning in a district that the GOP had controlled for years.
Her primary campaign, like those of her rivals, focused on finding ways to make the state more affordable, though she shied away during the primary campaign from offering a broad-based plan. She focused instead on more narrow steps such as lowering housing costs by boosting the number of development tax credits so more housing could be built.
Fred Martucci, 75, is a retired glazier who voted early in person recently in Trenton. He said he supported Sherrill after seeing her speak at a forum recently where she was confronted with tough questions.
“She was on her feet. She answered every one of them. She’s terrific,” he said.
Sherrill overcame fellow Democratic Rep. Josh Gottheimer, Mayors Ras Baraka of Newark and Steven Fulop of Jersey City, former state Senate President Steve Sweeney and New Jersey Education Association head Sean Spiller.
Part of her winning coalition included the endorsements of significant county party organizations like those in populous Essex and Middlesex, traditionally backbones of winning campaigns in the Garden State. She also sought to galvanize support among women, a key component of the party’s base, winning endorsements from reproductive rights groups like EMILY’s List.
A win in November would give New Jersey its second female governor after Christine Todd Whitman held the office for two terms as a Republican. The current governor, Democrat Phil Murphy, is prohibited from seeking a third consecutive term because of term limits. He didn’t endorse a successor in the primary.
Ciattarelli, a former state lawmaker and small businessman, won the Republican primary in New Jersey’s race for governor, cruising to victory with the support of President Donald Trump.
Ciattarelli now heads into the general election seeking to win back the governorship after two straight Democratic victories. He’s hoping to build on his 2021 performance when he came within a few percentage points of defeating Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy.
As he turns his attention to the general election, Ciattarelli confronts a balancing act in a state that leans toward Democrats but has shown a willingness to elect Republicans as governor.
On one hand, he and the president have embraced one another, and Ciattarelli remains popular with the GOP base, which has largely unified after eight years of Democratic control of state government. But to win in November, Ciattarelli will have to appeal to New Jersey’s wider electorate, which has never supported Trump in his three presidential campaigns despite the president’s strong ties to New Jersey, where he has owned casinos and other high-profile properties.
Ciattarelli’s campaign touts the president’s 2024 performance in the state, where he lost by 6 percentage points compared to a 16-point defeat in 2020, as a sign that the GOP is poised for a comeback. It also notes a decline for Democrats in registration as an indicator that voters are disillusioned with the party that has long prevailed in most statewide elections, though they occasionally have tapped Republicans as governor.
Ciattarelli defeated former talk radio host Bill Spadea, state Sen. Jon Bramnick, former Englewood Cliffs Mayor Mario Kranjac and contractor Justin Barbera to win the GOP primary.
A state Assembly member until 2018 when he stepped down to run for governor, Ciattarelli founded medical publishing company Galen Publishing and held local and county positions in Somerset.
Trump’s endorsement of Ciattarelli in the final month of the primary came after the candidate got to know and understand the “Make America Great Again” movement, the president said in a social media post. Trump’s backing hinted at Ciattarelli’s earlier criticism of Trump during his first run for the White House a decade ago, when he said Trump wasn’t fit for the presidency.
Now Ciattarelli is “ALL IN,” Trump said.
Trump wasn't a factor for Thomas Walton, 45, who supported Ciattarelli because he said he thinks he's best suited to handle the state's financial matters.
“We’ve had the nation’s highest property taxes for years, and no one ever does anything about them, especially the Democrats. He deserves the chance to change the way Trenton works," Walton said.
Murphy is prohibited from seeking a third consecutive term because of term limits. He didn’t endorse a successor in the primary.
The two open races for governor this year could offer signals about how the public is responding to Trump’s agenda and whether Democrats have succeeded in their efforts to rebuild after defeat in 2024.
Both parties will look to build their general election campaigns on widespread voter frustrations. For New Jersey Democrats, that means focusing on the parts of Trump’s aggressive second-term agenda that are unpopular. Republicans, meanwhile, are casting blame for economic hardships on Democrats who’ve run state government for the last eight years.
New Jersey has been reliably Democratic in Senate and presidential contests for decades. But the odd-year races for governor have tended to swing back and forth, and each of the last three GOP governors has won a second term.
Democrats have the largest share of registered voters in the state, followed closely by independent voters and then Republicans, who have roughly 800,000 fewer registrations than the Democratic Party. But the GOP has made gains in recent years, shaving the Democrats’ lead of more than 1 million more registrations to the current level.
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Associated Press reporter Bruce Shipkowski in Holmdel, New Jersey, contributed.
Mike Catalini, The Associated Press
