During the first general-election debate in the race for governor of New Jersey on Sunday, President Trump’s name came up more than a dozen times. There was talk about transgender athletes and the comedian Jimmy Kimmel. And much of the conversation touched on pressing national issues, including climate change and vaccine policy.
But there were also flashes of insight into the ways in which the Republican nominee, Jack Ciattarelli, and the Democratic nominee, Representative Mikie Sherrill, would govern on issues specific to New Jersey.
Here are some of the candidates’ starkest policy differences.
Immigration
In New Jersey, the conversation around immigration has centered largely on a statewide policy that limits the amount of voluntary assistance that local law enforcement officers can provide to federal authorities enforcing civil immigration laws.
The directive was enacted during Mr. Trump’s first term as president to foster trust between the police and immigrants in one of the most ethnically diverse states in the country. (Only California has a higher percentage of residents born outside the United States.)
Mr. Ciattarelli, a former state assemblyman endorsed by Mr. Trump, has said that he will immediately repeal the policy. Municipalities would lose state aid if officers refused to help federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials.
“Us acting as sanctuary cities, us being a sanctuary state only encourages illegal immigration and restricts our local law enforcement in a number of different ways,” Mr. Ciattarelli told the nearly 2,000 people gathered on Sunday at Rider University in Lawrence Township, N.J.
Ms. Sherrill, who has represented the state’s 11th Congressional District since 2019, has said that she supports the directive, but that she is not in favor of codifying it into law, as immigrant rights activists want. She declined to say during the debate whether she would continue the policy if elected. She did say she would stop ICE officials from wearing masks when conducting enforcement actions, as California has done.
“We can all agree that violent criminals should be deported,” Ms. Sherrill, a former federal prosecutor, said. “But what I also believe deeply in is due process.”
Judicial Appointments
For decades, New Jersey governors have upheld a custom of maintaining partisan balance on the state’s seven-member Supreme Court, with neither party holding more than a one-seat advantage.
Mr. Ciattarelli has said he will end that practice, which he calls a “failed tradition,” and instead appoint only conservative judges when vacancies occur.
Ms. Sherrill has said that she will continue alternating Supreme Court appointments by party. But she has also said that anyone she nominates will be a supporter of abortion rights.
Abortion
New Jersey law permits abortion throughout a pregnancy.
Ms. Sherrill supports enshrining the right to an abortion in the State Constitution, a process that requires the approval of three-fifths of the Legislature and a majority of voters. That would also make it harder to roll back abortion rights in New Jersey.
“He’ll support abortion bans,” she said in an opening statement. “I’ll support your personal freedoms.”
Mr. Ciattarelli has said that he supports a woman’s right to an abortion early in a pregnancy. He is in favor of banning abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy unless the health of the mother or fetus is at risk or in the case of rape or incest.
He also opposes using taxpayer funds for the procedure and supports parental notification for patients under 18 who are seeking an abortion.
State Budget
Mr. Ciattarelli has said he will mandate that all state employees return to an in-person, five-day workweek. And he wants to establish an office similar to the federal Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE.
If elected, he would require a two-week “cooling off period” between the release of the Legislature’s proposed spending plan and the vote to approve it, halting the annual rush to complete a budget before the July 1 deadline. The waiting period, he has said, would end the ability of legislators to “use the threat of government shutdowns to rush through bloated budgets and pork barrel spending.”
“I will very responsibly and surgically reduce the size and cost of our state government to afford a tax cut for individuals and businesses,” Mr. Ciattarelli said during the debate.
Ms. Sherrill has focused on transparency. She wants to introduce an interactive online budget tool to allow viewers to see each draft of the spending plan and the final budget. She also wants to create a “report card” to display contracts and grants awarded by the state and an assessment of their effectiveness.
Environment
Both candidates support the expanded use of solar and nuclear power.
Mr. Ciattarelli wants to withdraw New Jersey from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, as the state’s last Republican governor, Chris Christie, did in 2012. The initiative is a compact among 10 Northeast states that have agreed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Ms. Sherrill has said that she will declare a state of emergency to try to freeze electricity costs, which have spiked in New Jersey.
Mr. Ciattarelli opposes offshore wind turbines, as does Mr. Trump, whose administration has halted planned wind projects, rendering the issue, for now, largely moot in New Jersey.
Ms. Sherrill has pledged to “massively build out cheaper and cleaner power” to offset the shortage of in-state power generation. Her platform does not mention wind turbines, an energy source she has previously praised. Instead, she plans to expand energy production through solar, nuclear, gas and battery storage projects.
Schools
Ms. Sherrill supports banning cellphones during class time in public schools. She wants to create what she calls a “social media addiction observatory” to focus attention and research on the risks of social media. All public school students would get free school meals.
“There’s a mental health crisis in our state,” she said in response to a question about online privacy. “We need to address it. I’m going to have more mental health counselors so that we can all work together.”
Mr. Ciattarelli has said that he will rewrite the state funding formula that determines the flow of money to school districts. As part of the overhaul, the state would take over the cost of special education services, equalizing what Mr. Ciattarelli says is a disparity in the quality of the programs offered.
“A more equitable distribution of state aid to our schools will help lower the property tax,” he said.
Taxes
Both candidates have stressed the ways they will work to lower costs in New Jersey, which has some of the highest property and business taxes in the country.
Mr. Ciattarelli wants to cap property taxes by linking them to a percentage of a home’s assessed value and lower the tax paid by corporations by 1 percent a year for five years. He also supports making interest paid on student loans tax deductible.
Ms. Sherrill has said that she will order independent audits to find overpayments in the state health care benefit program that covers employees, resulting in savings for county and municipal governments. These savings, she said, would be passed on to taxpayers.
She has also proposed expanding the child tax credit and giving a tax break to caregivers of older relatives.
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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