Former Navy pilot to face Ciattarelli in competitive New Jersey governor’s race

MORRISTOWN, N.J. – Rep. Mikie Sherrill won New Jersey’s Democratic gubernatorial primary on Tuesday night.

The Associated Press projects that Sherrill has won the Democratic primary, teeing up a competitive race against three-time gubernatorial candidate and former GOP state lawmaker, Jack Ciattarelli, to replace Democrat Gov. Phil Murphy, who is term-limited this year. 

Sherill swept a crowded field of Democratic candidates, including Newark mayor Ras Baraka, Jersey City mayor Steve Fulop, New Jersey Education Association president Sean Spiller, former New Jersey Senate president Steve Sweeney and fellow U.S. Rep. Josh Gottheimer.

Democrat and Republican candidates often evoked President Donald Trump’s name on the New Jersey campaign trail, as Democrats positioned themselves as the most anti-Trump and Republicans vied to be the most pro-Trump candidate. It was Ciattarelli who landed the Trump endorsement as Democrats worked to contrast the president’s vision with their own. 

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New Jersey is one of just two governor’s races in 2025, along with Virginia. Both will be used by politicians and pundits to gauge how Americans are responding to Trump’s second term ahead of the midterm elections next year. 

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As they campaigned for the coveted nomination, Democratic candidates walked a fine line between building on Murphy’s legacy and promising to change the status quo in Trenton. Like Murphy, Democratic candidates have rejected Trump’s executive orders, his crackdown on illegal immigration and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) cuts. 

Acting as the last line of defense to a sweeping Republican agenda, Democratic governors have often rejected Trump’s executive actions during his second term. By suing the Trump administration to unlock federal funds or refusing to comply with ICE deportations, Democratic governors – including many rumored to harbor 2028 presidential ambitions – are often leading the party’s resistance to Trump. 

Trump once again took center stage on Tuesday as Sherrill and Gottheimer were peppered with questions by the press about the protests and riots unfolding in Los Angeles. 

When asked how she would handle the ongoing situation in Los Angeles differently from Gov. Gavin Newsom, Sherrill touted her military and law enforcement background and told Fox News Digital she would stand up “strongly in favor of keeping people here in the state safe,” return safety to the streets and continue “speaking out against a president who is trying to create violence in the country.”

Sherrill is a U.S. Navy veteran and served in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Jersey as an outreach and re-entry coordinator, which she described as prosecuting federal cases and advising law enforcement on investigations.  

“Governor Newsom surged law enforcement in, and what Trump seems to be doing is trying to add fuel to the fire and really make the situation violent and bad,” Sherrill told reporters after casting her ballot in Montclair on Tuesday morning. “That’s completely unacceptable.”

Gottheimer said it was “outrageous” for Trump to send the National Guard to California without Newsom’s request. 

“The fact that the president, for the first time since 1965, sent troops in from the National Guard without a request from the governor is outrageous. It’s just more chaos that we’re used to having in this administration. It’s not how I would approach this,” Gottheimer told Fox News Digital after voting in Tenafly. 

Democratic candidates threw their support behind Baraka last month after he was arrested for trespassing at an ICE facility in Newark. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) called it a “beyond bizarre political stunt,” but Baraka has maintained that he did nothing wrong. 

Last week, Baraka filed a lawsuit against Alina Habba, U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey, and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Agent Ricky Patel “for false arrest, malicious prosecution, and defamation.” 

Trump outperformed in the Garden State in 2024, according to Fox News Voter Analysis. 

While Vice President Kamala Harris won New Jersey in 2024 as expected, Trump gained a nearly five-point improvement from his 2020 vote share and Harris’ support dropped by about five points. He gained across New Jersey, with his largest swings in the northeast corner of the state. Hudson and Passaic counties lead the pack.

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Ciattarelli lost by a hair to Murphy in 2021 and framed his candidacy as a referendum on the Democratic policies that have driven New Jersey for the past eight years. 

Fox News’ Remy Numa contributed to this report.