Mikie Sherrill will be the next governor of New Jersey, per the Associated Press.
The Democratic congresswoman prevailed in a tight race over the former state legislator Jack Ciattarelli. Sherrill’s opponent had the backing of President Donald Trump, and her campaign worked to paint the governor’s race as a referendum on Trump’s second term. Ciattarelli, who has unsuccessfully run for governor three times, hoped to weigh Sherrill down via her party affiliation, arguing that Democrats had made a mess of their complete control over the Garden State since 2018.
“This race is all about New Jersey,” Ciattarelli said in June. “My opponent is going to want to talk about Donald Trump every day of the week… I’ve got to hit the reset button here in New Jersey come January. We’re going to keep the focus on New Jersey.”
Ciattarelli’s MAGA affiliations proved too much for some voters to ignore. In a column for the New Jersey Globe, Rev. Dr. Charles Boyer questioned the perennial candidate’s recent outreach to Black voters.
“I cannot allow someone who has bowed at the altar of MAGA to stand before a congregation still reeling from the trauma that movement has inflicted,” he wrote. “Jack has embraced an endorsement from Donald Trump a man whose political legacy is soaked in hostility toward Black people, our dignity, and our safety. Until Jack publicly denounces that endorsement, I cannot, in good conscience, welcome him into my congregation.”
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Sherrill punished Ciattarelli for Trump’s endorsement, railing against recent SNAP benefit cuts and the administration’s funding freeze on crucial infrastructure projects connecting the state to New York City.
“The reason that I talk about the Trump administration is because we are seeing an attack on that basic contract — that basic middle-class contract — that you should be able to do well and your kids should be able to do better,” Sherrill told reporters last week. “He is attacking our economy. We are seeing it in the jobs numbers. We are seeing it in schools and the innovation economy we run, and Jack Ciattarelli is going right along with him and supporting that plan.”
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