The Associated Press has called the New Jersey governor’s election for U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill.
As of 10:30 p.m., The Associated Press was reporting Sherrill with about 56% of the vote compared with Jack Ciattarelli’s approximately 43%. With 86% of the vote counted, Sherrill earned more than 1.5 million votes, and Ciattarelli garnered 1.2 million.
The race pitted the four-term New Jersey Democrat congresswoman against Republican gubernatorial nominee and former New Jersey Assemblyman Ciattarelli. Polls had shown a close race leading into the election, with an AtlasIntel poll showing basically a tie from data collected from Oct. 25 to 30.
In her victory speech, Sherrill promised to declare a state of emergency on her first day in office to lower utility costs. The governor-elect also appeared to allude to the Trump administration, stating, “No one in our great state is safe when our neighbors are targeted, ignoring the law and the Constitution.”
Sherrill also emphasized the importance of the state executive. “Governors have never mattered more. And in this state, I am determined to build prosperity for all of our citizens,” she said.
Terry Schilling, the president of the American Principles Project, a family policy think tank, had identified family policies as a key issue at stake in the race. He panned the Democrats’ strategy of avoiding talking about sociocultural issues in light of their 2024 presidential election loss.
“They are hoping that by remaining silent, they can avoid political consequences and maintain political power. This is a shortsighted strategy as the problems caused by pushing transgenderism will continue to grow as more men take over women’s sports and private spaces, and women lose more of their rights and safety,” he explained.
Reacting to Ciattarelli’s loss, Erica Jedynak, a Republican strategist, told The Daily Signal, “Jack left it all on the field. His team ran a formidable campaign, bringing the affordability crisis to the forefront of the debate.”
Frank Pallotta, a former New Jersey Republican congressional candidate, attributed the loss to the differences between how the two political parties were operating in the Garden State.
“The Republican Party in New Jersey loses, by and large, because they’re still figuring out how to play checkers, while the Democrat organizations scattered around the state are playing chess,” Pallotta told The Daily Signal.
“Anyone who paid attention to the last two years of what the tea leaves and the vote-by-mail trending was telling us would’ve known that this was something that needed to be addressed. Until the state decides to embrace the math, the science, and the marketing of last six years, I don’t think much will change,” he added.
In 2021, Ciattarelli lost to incumbent Democrat Gov. Phil Murphy by about 3 percentage points. Murphy had succeeded Republican Gov. Chris Christie, who held the office from 2010 to 2018 after succeeded Democrat Gov. Jon Corzine.
This is a breaking news article and it may be updated.
