Democrat Mikie Sherrill wins governor’s race : NPR

Democratic U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill speaks at a rally November 1 in Newark, New Jersey. The Associated Press declared Sherrill the winner of Tuesday’s race against Republican candidate Jack Ciattarelli.

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Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

A former Navy pilot, first elected to Congress in 2018, will be New Jersey’s next governor.

Democratic Rep. Mikie Sherrill defeated Republican former Rep. Jack Ciattarelli, according to an Associated Press race call, capping a closely watched gubernatorial election that some polls suggested would be a toss-up.

Sherrill’s victory marks the first time since the 1960s that New Jersey voters have elected a governor from the same party to three consecutive terms. Her victory is also the second major victory for Democrats on Tuesday, following Abigail Spanberger’s victory for governor of Virginia.

This race was also one of the first statewide votes since the start of his second term. Trump endorsed Ciattarelli in May ahead of the Republican primary.

The close race surprised some in this traditionally blue state, which has had a Democratic governor for eight years and a Democratic-controlled legislature for even longer.

But the possibility that the governorship could go to a Republican — as well as the fact that the statewide race is seen as a bellwether for public opinion on Trump’s second term — has put the election in the national spotlight and generated nearly $200 million in spending.

Trump endorsed Ciattarelli earlier this year, saying that after Ciattarelli learned to “know and understand MAGA,” he went “ALL IN, and is now 100% (MORE!).” Ciattarelli had previously criticized the president. Meanwhile, former President Obama endorsed Sherrill in an online video message and later joined him on the campaign trail.

Sherrill, also a former federal prosecutor and attorney, entered politics less than a decade ago when she was elected to Congress in 2018. It was the third time Ciattarelli, a former CPA and small business owner, ran for governor.

But even though Democrats have an advantage over Republicans on the voting rolls, New Jerseyans have chosen governors from both parties.

“As blue as New Jersey can be in presidential and U.S. Senate elections, the state is decidedly purple when it comes to gubernatorial elections,” Ben Dworkin, director of the Rowan Institute for Public Policy & Citizenship at Rowan University, told NPR in October.

Affordability was perhaps the most important issue of the campaign. Both candidates lamented the state’s high cost of living and soaring energy prices, with Ciattarelli pledging to reduce New Jersey’s high property taxes and Sherrill promising to freeze electric bills.

But in the final weeks of the race, the two campaigns traded personal attacks. Ciattarelli has repeatedly questioned Sherrill’s involvement in a cheating scandal at the Naval Academy in 1994. She said she was barred from walking at graduation because she failed to return her classmates, and blasted the Trump administration for leaking her military records, mostly unredacted, to a Ciattarelli campaign ally.

For his part, Sherrill accused Ciattarelli’s former publishing house of producing materials downplaying the dangers of opioids, saying during one of the two men’s televised debates that his opponent was responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of people in New Jersey. Ciattarelli said Sherrill was lying and threatened to sue her for defamation.