Democrat Mikie Sherrill elected governor of New Jersey

Democratic nominee Mikie Sherrill was elected on Tuesday to be the 57th governor of New Jersey, defeating Jack Ciattarelli, a former state representative and Republican, in a race that suggested the resilience of the party after Donald Trump’s return to office.

The Associated Press called the race for Sherrill just two hours after polls closed.

The contest – one of only two gubernatorial races this year – drew national attention as a potential preview for what’s to come in the 2026 midterms and an early gauge of Trump’s standing with voters.

In June, New Jersey Democrats held a competitive primary that tested whether progressive candidates like Newark mayor Ras Baraka or longtime party stalwarts like former state senate president Steve Sweeney could capture the party’s energy. But voters chose Sherrill, a moderate former prosecutor and navy helicopter pilot who was elected to Congress in 2018’s blue wave to represent a suburban district.

Sherrill’s nomination provided a stark contrast to the upset win across the Hudson by Zohran Mamdani in New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary, highlighting two potential paths forward for the party during the second Trump administration.

Ciattarelli was the Republican nominee for the second time, after running in 2017 but losing the nomination to former lieutenant governor Kim Guadagno, and surprising pollsters in 2021 with a closer-than-expected loss to governor Phil Murphy. While Ciattarelli’s last attempt for the governor’s mansion was more in line with New Jersey’s history of moderate Republicans, this time, he won Trump’s endorsement and attempted to balance a campaign about affordability with culture war messaging focused on gender identity and immigration.

In a race where voters were intensely concerned about rising cost of living, recent polls showed razor thin margins between the candidates. At times, the campaign broke down into outright scandal, including the leaking of Sherrill’s military records by a Ciattarelli ally, and threats of a defamation suit from Ciattarelli against Sherrill after she accused him during their final debate of “killing tens of thousands” of people in connection with the opioid crisis.

The New Jersey contest was slated to be a close election after several counties flipped for Trump in last year’s presidential election.