U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D) won election Tuesday to serve as New Jersey’s next governor, holding off a strong Republican rival who came within three percentage points of upsetting outgoing Gov. Phil Murphy (D) four years ago.
With 60% of the vote counted, Sherrill led former Assemb. Jack Ciattarelli (R) 57% to 43%. The Associated Press projected Sherrill would win the race.
Sherrill, 53, positioned herself as a moderate who can stand up to President Trump.
“I know your struggles. I know your hopes. I know your dreams. So serving you is worth every fight I have to take on,” Sherrill told fans at her victory party.
Though Trump lost New Jersey by only six percentage points in 2024, a relatively strong performance for a Republican in what has long been a blue state, his popularity has plummeted in recent months.
Just 44% of likely voters said they had a favorable view of Trump, according to a recent Fox News survey. An exit poll conducted by NBC News found Trump’s approval rating at 43%, while 55% disapproved of the job he is doing.
Nearly a third of Sherrill’s campaign advertisements mentioned Trump by name, according to AdImpact, a firm that tracks the political ad market. Overall, 59% of television spending on Sherrill’s behalf, including millions from the national Democratic Party, mentioned the Trump’s name.
Ciattarelli, who won Trump’s endorsement ahead of the Republican primary, had his own albatross to hang around Sherrill’s neck: While New Jersey voters see Trump unfavorably, they have an even lower opinion of Murphy. Just 34% of New Jersey voters approve of the job Murphy is doing as governor, according to an Emerson College poll conducted last week.
Still, opposition to Trump appeared to carry more weight with voters. A CNN exit poll found 39% of voters cast a ballot to oppose Trump, three times the share of voters who said their vote was meant to support Trump.
That poll found 19% of voters who disapproved of Murphy nonetheless backed Sherrill. Just 7% who approved of Murphy’s job performance backed Ciattarelli.
National Republicans rued the lack of support they offered Ciattarelli in 2021, when he came so close to beating Murphy. This year, national Republicans were similarly absent. Though Trump endorsed Ciattarelli, he did not campaign for the Republican nominee in person.
Sherrill, a former U.S. Navy helicopter pilot and assistant U.S. Attorney in New Jersey, won election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2018, replacing a longtime Republican incumbent. She was a member of the New Democrat Coalition and the Blue Dog Coalition, two groups of centrist Democrats.
She is the second woman to lead New Jersey, after Republican Christine Todd Whitman won election in 1993 and 1997. Whitman, who has since left the Republican Party over distaste for Trump, backed Sherrill in the general election.
Sherrill’s election “means we’re going to have a governor who cares about New Jersey, not what the president wants,” Whitman said on MSNBC after the Associated Press called the race. “It finally means that we’ll stop introducing me as the first and only female governor of New Jersey.”
Voter turnout appeared to be substantially higher this year compared with four years ago. More than 1.3 million voters cast early in-person and mail-in ballots before Election Day; registered Democrats, registered Republicans and registered independents all voted early in higher numbers compared with 2021.