The Democratic candidates for governor in New Jersey and Virginia are set to make a rare joint campaign appearance on Wednesday.
Representative Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey and former Representative Abigail Spanberger of Virginia will take part in a Zoom organizing rally on Wednesday afternoon put together by the Democratic National Committee. Appearing virtually so they do not have to leave their respective states in the final week of the election, the candidates will be joined by Democratic Party leaders, including Gov. Andy Beshear of Kentucky, Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Ken Martin, the chairman of the D.N.C.
“With one week left before the crucial 2025 elections, the D.N.C. is deploying the full weight of our organizing network to contact voters across Virginia and New Jersey,” Mr. Martin said in a statement. “The stakes couldn’t be higher, and our organizing team is ready to meet the moment.”
The Zoom call is meant to energize Democratic volunteers, but the event will also be streamed on YouTube for the public to view.
Virginia and New Jersey are the only states to hold governor’s elections in the year following a presidential race like this one. For years, Virginia was considered a more telling indicator of the national mood, having long been a swing state that only recently shifted blue.
But this year, the closer election is in deeply blue New Jersey. All recent polling has shown Ms. Sherrill with a small lead or locked in a statistical dead heat with her opponent, Jack Ciattarelli, the Republican candidate who is running his third campaign for governor, having lost in 2017 and 2021.
The D.N.C. has made record investments in both states, over $3.2 million in New Jersey and roughly that amount in Virginia, according to the party.
Candidates from New Jersey and Virginia rarely join forces; the states are very different politically, and races for governor are generally much more locally focused than elections for Congress.
But Ms. Sherrill and Ms. Spanberger have a long and intertwined relationship. Both elected amid the Democratic wave in 2018, they were part of a group of first-time female candidates with national security backgrounds who flipped Republican districts. They called themselves the Badasses and formed a bloc of relatively moderate Democrats in Congress.
Ms. Sherrill and Ms. Spanberger were roommates while in Washington and still talk regularly.
Wednesday’s event comes as both states are in the final stretch of their early voting, with both seeing steady turnout indicative of high voter engagement for the off-year elections.
Nick Corasaniti is a Times reporter covering national politics, with a focus on voting and elections.
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