Mikie Sherrill was sworn in on Tuesday as New Jersey’s 57th governor after a resounding victory in a race that was framed by her fellow Democrats as a must-win battle in a broader campaign to weaken President Trump’s grip on national politics.
Ms. Sherrill dispatched the Trump-endorsed Republican candidate, Jack Ciattarelli, by 14 points in November as she did what no one else has done in New Jersey in 65 years: secure her party a third consecutive term in the governor’s office in Trenton.
Ms. Sherrill replaces Philip D. Murphy, a Democrat who has led New Jersey for two terms.
She and her lieutenant governor, Dale Caldwell, chose to hold their inauguration in Newark, the state’s largest city, rather than in the capital, Trenton. The last governor elected in New Jersey to be sworn in somewhere other than in the Trenton War Memorial was Christie Todd Whitman, in 1998. Ms. Whitman, a former Republican who endorsed Ms. Sherrill, was the first woman to serve as New Jersey’s governor; Ms. Sherrill, who turned 54 on Monday, will be the second.
A former Navy helicopter pilot, Ms. Sherrill is the first female veteran to serve as a U.S. governor. She graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1994 and served in the Navy for nine years before entering law school at Georgetown University. Raised in Virginia, she and her husband, Jason Hedberg, moved in 2010 to Montclair, N.J., an affluent town known for its left-leaning voters. The couple has four children, two of whom are in their first year at the Naval Academy.
On Saturday, Ms. Sherrill and Mr. Hedberg, an investment banker who works for the Royal Bank of Canada, attended Abigail Spanberger’s inauguration as governor of Virginia.
“I can’t wait to join your ranks soon, Madame Governor,” Ms. Sherrill wrote on social media.
She and Ms. Spanberger, a former C.I.A. officer, were roommates in Washington after both women were elected to the House in 2018, as Democrats flipped the chamber during Mr. Trump’s first term as president.
Only New Jersey and Virginia hold races for governor the year after a presidential contest, and the chairman of the Democratic National Committee has cast their victories as important wins en route to November 2026, when midterm congressional elections will determine party control of Congress. Democrats have had little clout in Washington since Mr. Trump was elected to a second term and are eager to regain a toehold in a Congress controlled by Republicans, who have done little to limit the president’s broad expansion of executive power.
Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, a progressive icon who drew roughly 2,000 people to a rally Monday in New Jersey, cited Ms. Sherrill’s victory and decisive Democratic wins in Virginia and New York City as strong indicators for the midterm elections. A Democratic majority in either the House or the Senate, he said, would “go a long way to neutralizing the disastrous policies of Trump.”
But in an interview after his address in support of Analilia Mejía, a left-leaning candidate for Ms. Sherrill’s vacant House seat, he stressed that it will take more to win than simply running against the president.
“Of course we’re going to take on Trumpism every day,” he said. “But it is important for working people to understand that we’re not just supporting going back to the old status quo.”
“We want fundamental economic transformation in this country and an economy that works everybody,” he added.
On Tuesday morning, guests began filing into the large, ornate theater of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark two hours before Ms. Sherrill took the oath of office. It was a see-and-be-seen moment draped in symbolism — and opportunity — for the political elite gathered.
Bruce Springsteen anthems played from speakers. And two men dressed in colonial tricorn hats and Revolutionary War garb peered down from the stage as attendees milled near the theater’s orchestra seats.
Her inaugural ball will be held later on Tuesday at the American Dream mall, a massive but financially struggling commercial hub in Bergen County, in northern New Jersey.
Ms. Sherrill has proceeded methodically as she prepared to take over, conducting a statewide tour of diners to meet with voters and seeking feedback from residents through an online survey. On Sunday, she posted a video of herself calling a respondent to “thank them personally and hear more about what’s on their minds.”
She has announced roughly two dozen cabinet appointments and made clear that she is searching for talent beyond New Jersey. Her pick to lead the Department of Education helped to run the public school system in Texas. And her choice to lead the embattled Motor Vehicle Commission reduced drivers’ average wait time at motor vehicle offices in Colorado to 15 minutes, down from 45, and boosted the issuance of REAL ID cards — identification now required for air travel without a passport. New Jersey’s REAL ID rollout has been bogged down by delays.
“I promised a different kind of leadership in Trenton, focused on results,” Ms. Sherrill has said.
Ms. Sherrill has also announced plans to have one person run both NJ Transit and the Turnpike Authority, which oversees the state’s two busiest highways. Environmental and transit advocates cheered the reimagined role and noted that her choice to run the joint entity, Kris Kolluri, now leads NJ Transit — a harbinger, they hope, of a governor who prioritizes mass transit over vehicle use.
Several of her most prominent appointees are women, including her choices for attorney general, Jennifer Davenport; comptroller, Shirley Emehelu; and transportation commissioner, Priya Jain. Ms. Sherrill’s selections must be confirmed by the State Senate, although individuals can serve in an “acting” capacity even without legislative approval.
Ms. Sherrill acted quickly on a pledge that was central to her campaign: declaring a state of emergency aimed at freezing electricity costs and working to increase in-state power generation.
She has also said she intended to cut red tape for businesses, hire more mental health counselors for schools and invest in high-impact tutoring. Using data gathered through a new “social media addiction observatory,” she has said that her administration will take on digital platforms that use algorithms to lure children and teenagers.
Mr. Caldwell, the incoming lieutenant governor, is a Methodist pastor with extensive experience in school leadership. In 2023, he became the first Black president of Centenary University, in Hackettstown, N.J., and he served for 25 years on the board of education in New Brunswick, where he lives.
He spent two decades as president of the Educational Services Commission of New Jersey, which operates schools for children with autism and at-risk behaviors. He also helped to form a charter school in Asbury Park, 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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