Congresswoman wins Democratic primary in New Jersey governor’s race

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.

Bishop Jethro James is senior pastor of the Paradise Baptist Church and president of the Newark, North Jersey Committee of Black Churches. He joined throngs of jubilant supporters who packed into the Westin Governor Morris in Morristown to cheer her win.

“The reality is, the best man for a job is a woman,” James said. “I believe that her integrity speaks for itself. She understands real conditions of people and purpose. The other candidates are strictly politics. That’s not Mikie Sherrill. She understands a national budget, but she understands a kitchen budget.”

Anjali Mehrotra, a national board member of the National Organization for Women, said she’s “an original Team Mikie.”

“I’ve been waiting for her to run for governor for two years now,” Mehrotra said. “I would like to see more women elected in office, and not just because I feel like we need representation, but actual research shows that women govern differently because they’re more empathetic, they’re more collaborative, and frankly, they’re more about the issues that I care about. Do I see a man fighting for universal child care? Probably not.”

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.

Whoever replaces Murphy will be tested in unprecedented ways, as the Trump administration increasingly attacks states’ sovereignty by cracking down on state and local officials who don’t embrace or at least allow its immigration enforcement, cost cuts, and other policies that have led to nationwide upheaval.

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.

“She’s done it in Congress. She did it when he was in his first term, and she’s continuing to message in a way that makes me very confident that she’ll keep our state very safe and following the Constitution, which she has sworn an oath to, over and over again,” said Tricia Maguire of Middletown, who brought her 22-year-old daughter Fiona to Sherrill’s victory party.

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.