Representative Mikie Sherrill on Tuesday won the Democratic Party’s nomination to run for governor of New Jersey, capping a hard-fought primary that featured a large field of prominent and well-funded candidates.
With about 35 percent of the estimated vote reported, Ms. Sherrill, a former U.S. Navy helicopter pilot who represents New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District, outpaced five other candidates to win the nomination, according to The Associated Press.
She is now expected to compete in November’s general election against Jack Ciattarelli, the winner of Tuesday’s Republican primary. Mr. Ciattarelli, a former state assemblyman, is running his third race for governor and is backed by President Trump, who has made clear his goal of helping to propel a Republican to the State House in Trenton after eight years of Democratic control.
Ms. Sherrill, a lawyer and graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy who worked for about four years for the U.S. attorney’s office in New Jersey, was among the 101 congressional newcomers — 42 of them women — who took office in 2019 during Mr. Trump’s first term as president, flipping the House from red to blue. She won a seat held for nearly a quarter century by a Republican who did not run for re-election.
This year, Ms. Sherrill, 53, was the only woman running for governor in either party’s primary, and she stuck closely to a carefully curated message in which she presented herself as a mother and a veteran trained to run “toward the fight.” Two of her four children will enter the Naval Academy later this month, a detail she shared with voters.
Her narrow margin of victory reflected the size of the field and the prominence of each of the candidates, five of whom live in northern New Jersey and were competing for the same base of support. The other Democratic candidates were Mayor Steven Fulop of Jersey City; Mayor Ras J. Baraka of Newark; Representative Josh Gottheimer; Stephen M. Sweeney, a former State Senate president; and Sean Spiller, the president of the New Jersey Education Association.
Only Mr. Sweeney, a labor leader and former ironworker, lives south of Newark.
Immigration, and each Democrat’s plan to try to blunt the impact of Mr. Trump’s policies in Washington, were prominent campaign themes in a state that is home to an estimated 440,000 undocumented immigrants.
Then, last month, immigration became even more central to the debate, after Mr. Baraka made national news for days after being arrested outside a migrant detention center that is key to the president’s goal of increased deportations.
Mr. Baraka, 55, was taken into custody in a public driveway outside the jail’s gated perimeter and was charged with trespassing. Minutes before his arrest, he had voluntarily left an area just inside the facility’s front gate, where he had been standing for about 45 minutes after being invited in by a security guard.
Alina Habba, the interim U.S. attorney for New Jersey who was appointed in March by Mr. Trump, dropped the case within two weeks — but then brought assault charges against Representative LaMonica McIver, who was with Mr. Baraka when he was arrested, reigniting national attention. Last Tuesday, Mr. Baraka filed a lawsuit against Ms. Habba that claimed malicious prosecution, false arrest and defamation.
As a candidate, Ms. Sherrill, who until 2023 was a member of the centrist Blue Dog Coalition in Congress, focused on her support for abortion rights and her plan to increase affordable housing near transit hubs and in dilapidated cities like Trenton.
To win, she overcame a barrage of negative television and print advertising paid for by several opponents, who spotlighted donations she had accepted from employees of SpaceX, the technology company founded by Elon Musk, and the rapid growth in her family’s net worth since she entered Congress.
She was also branded a “milquetoast” candidate by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, a national group that last week endorsed two of her left-leaning opponents, Mr. Baraka and Mr. Fulop.
“She would be better than a Republican,” the group’s co-founder, Adam Green, a New Jersey resident, said in a statement. “But not bold. Not extraordinary. Not itching for a fight at a time when voters want someone who will shake up a corrupt political and economic system.”
Gov. Philip D. Murphy, a Democrat and former Goldman Sachs executive who has led New Jersey since 2018, was barred by term limits from running for re-election.
Only New Jersey and Virginia are holding races for governor this year, and Mr. Trump and his divisive policies have factored heavily in both. New Jersey Democrats are hopeful that Mr. Ciattarelli’s alliance with Mr. Trump will fuel turnout by voters dismayed by the president’s leadership as large cuts to Medicaid loom, wars rage in Gaza and Ukraine and new tariffs have contributed to increased consumer costs.
The Democrats will be competing to do what neither party has done in New Jersey since 1961: hold on to the governor’s office for a third consecutive term.
There are about 800,000 more registered Democrats than Republicans in New Jersey, but both candidates will need to appeal to the 2.4 million voters who are not registered with either party. According to polls, New Jersey’s high cost of living remains a top priority for voters. Steep increases in the cost of electricity and a 3 percent jump in New Jersey Transit fares are set to take hold this summer, further straining household budgets ahead of the election.
Republicans are confident that Mr. Trump’s stronger-than-expected showing in New Jersey in last November’s presidential race will help Mr. Ciattarelli’s odds among voters dissatisfied by Mr. Murphy’s leadership and concerned about state spending. The proposed state budget this year is more than $58 billion, up from about $33 billion in 2020.
In a cinematic twist, Ms. Sherrill’s former roommate in Washington, Abigail Spanberger, a Democrat who represented Virginia’s Seventh Congressional District, is running for governor of Virginia.
Ms. Spanberger, a former Central Intelligence Agency officer who entered Congress with Ms. Sherrill in 2019 but did not run for re-election to the House last year, was born in Red Bank, N.J.
Tracey Tully is a reporter for The Times who covers New Jersey, where she has lived for more than 20 years.
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