Rep. Mikie Sherrill won the Democratic primary Tuesday in her bid to become New Jersey’s next governor, the Associated Press projected, riding a wave of establishment and popular support that coalesced around her perceived electability in this fall’s general election.
Sherrill, a former federal prosecutor and Navy helicopter pilot, had long been the party’s favorite, leading in polls and picking up more county organization endorsements than any of her five rivals. But her victory was far from assured, with New Jersey in unknown waters since the courts toppled the powerful county line, which had historically given party-endorsed candidates prime placement on ballots and usually guaranteed a win.
Sherrill used her victory speech to target her GOP opponent in November, former Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli, and President Donald Trump. She said the United States is “too beautiful to be beholden to the cruelty and self-interest that Jack and Trump are trying to foist on her.”
“The president comes here nonstop to his golf course, and he calls our state a horror show. Come November, we’re sending a shot across the bow. We are sending a message, because it’s usually the people who have something to prove that work the hardest. Hey, New Jersey, I’ve got something to prove!” she said.
Sherrill, 53, of Montclair, won her congressional seat in 2018 in her first-ever run for public office, flipping a seat that had long been held by a Republican after 12-term incumbent Rodney Frelinghuysen retired. Voters in the 11th Congressional District, which covers parts of Essex, Morris, and Passaic counties, have reelected her three times since then.
Ciattarelli and Sherrill will face off in their bids to succeed Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat who is barred from seeking a third term this year.
Sherrill’s rivals had tried to disrupt her momentum by disparaging her as the establishment candidate during a time when many Democrats are disillusioned by their party and looking for seismic change.
But the “machine politician” insult failed to stick, likely because she has been in politics for less time than any of her campaign rivals aside from Sean Spiller.
Still, she and rival Steve Fulop, Jersey City’s mayor, led the race in spending, with both shelling out almost $9 million in what has become New Jersey’s most expensive primary in state history. Sherrill also got a nearly $4 million boost in spending by independent expenditure groups.
Most Democrats in the race, consequently, focused on resistance to Trump as a go-to campaign promise.
Sherrill said she’s the candidate best positioned to fight back against Trump. And her supporters believe she can do it too.
Though Ciattarelli is seeking to tie Sherrill to Murphy in hopes that New Jersey voters are tired of Democratic policies dominating in Trenton, Sherrill on Tuesday said she, not Ciattarelli, is the change agent in the race.
“I am ready to shake up the status quo. He’s not a change, he’s a rerun. He’s the ghost of elections past,” she said.
