Mikie Sherrill wins heated and crazy Democratic primary for N.J. governor

U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill decisively won a wild and very crowded primary Tuesday for the Democratic nomination to become New Jersey’s next governor, capitalizing on support from a vast array of party leaders and staving off fierce threats from challengers in a new-look election.

The Associated Press called the six-candidate Democratic primary for Sherrill at 8:39 p.m., 39 minutes after polls closed — much sooner than expected for a race many said was unpredictable.

With 93% of the statewide vote counted as of 2 a.m., the 53-year-old Montclair resident and four-term congresswoman was far ahead, with 34% of the vote. Behind her were, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka at 20.4%, Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop at 15.9%, U.S. Rep. Josh Gottheimer at 11.8%, New Jersey Education Association President Sean Spiller at 10.7%, and former state Senate President Steve Sweeney at 7.2%.

Sherrill, a former Navy helicopter pilot and federal prosecutor, is now looking to become only the second woman elected governor in state history as Democrats hopes hold on to the office after eight years of term-limited Phil Murphy. She was the only female candidate in either primary.

She will face former state Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli in the Nov. 4 general election to succeed Murphy. Ciattarelli, the Republican nominee for a second straight governor’s race after nearly unseating Murphy in 2021, cruised to victory in Tuesday’s GOP primary.

Cheers rang out at Sherrill’s party in Morristown after the call was made. The crowd chanted “our state, our governor!” as the Black Eyed Peas’ “I Gotta Feeling” played.

“Here’s what came through loud and clear: We love this state,” Sherrill told supporters in her victory speech. “Tonight, I pledge to you we’re going to build something worthy of our state and worthy of our kids.”

She also wasted no time tying Ciattarelli to Trump, a part-time Jersey resident who recently endorsed the Republican and said the state is “ready to pop out of that blue horror show.”

“The president comes here nonstop to his golf course, and he calls our state a horror show,” Sherrill said. “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.”

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The battle is sure to be watched across the nation. New Jersey is one of just two states with gubernatorial elections this year, along with Virginia. And it’ll be seen as an early barometer on how voters are reacting to Trump’s return to the presidency.

Sherrill will try to buck longtime Jersey trends after Democrats have held the governor’s office for eight years. The last time one party won three straight governor’s races in the state was 1961.

A Virginia native, Sherrill came into office by flipping a once-red U.S. House district — North Jersey’s 11th — in the 2018 “blue wave” of Trump’s first midterms.

On Tuesday, she won a long, competitive, expensive, and unprecedented Democratic gubernatorial primary.

It was the first governor’s election without the “county line,” a controversial system in which party-backed candidates received prime placement on primary ballots and often cruised to victory. But a judge tossed the setup last year amid backlash from critics who said it empowered party bosses and machine politics. State leaders installed a new ballot design.

Sherrill, though, ran a relatively traditional Jersey race, scoring the endorsements of Democratic leaders and powerful county parties in most of the largest parts of North Jersey — which would have made her the clear favorite all along had the line still been in place. But the line’s disappearance contributed to an unusually large Democratic primary field, with six candidates known well in political circles, running on a more even playing field.

It’s also the most expensive state election in Jersey history, with candidates and outside groups on both sides shelling out $122 million combined so far.

Sherrill still led in most polls, but her five rivals were never that far behind. The belief was any candidate could have won with a little more than 20% of the vote — or a few thousand votes — in a crowded primary with low turnout.

Heading into Tuesday, most of Jersey’s political insiders and pundits were leery of predicting a winner in the Democratic race, saying it looked like anyone’s game.

The race also turned into a tug of war over the direction of the party. Sherrill is a relatively moderate candidate, while two top opponents — Fulop and Baraka — ran in the progressive lane.

Fulop, the first to launch his campaign, more than two years ago, criticized party bosses and vowed to reform state government.

In a short speech to supporters at the Zeppelin Hall Beer Garden in Jersey City about 20 minutes after the race was called, Fulop called it “a tough, tough, tough night.”

“But life goes on, and we’ll continue to fight,” he said. “We’ll make a better Jersey City and we’ll fight for a better state of New Jersey.”

Baraka promised more equity and social justice and said the party needs to fight Trump head on instead of moving to the middle. He also drew attention for getting arrested by federal officials on trespassing charges at an immigrant detention facility — though the case was later dropped.

Baraka told supporters Tuesday at the Robert Treat Hotel in Newark that Democrats must now unite behind Sherrill.

“We have to bring this party together,” he said. “We have to make sure Ciattarelli does not win.”

Baraka also said he would continue be heard from after his arrest raised his national profile.

”My voice is going to grow and grow," he said.

Gottheimer and Sweeney, meanwhile, ran as centrists vowing to cut taxes and spending. Gottheimer also had party backing in Bergen, the state’s largest county. And Sweeney had a the support of most of South Jersey, something he hoped would catapult him to victory if the other candidates caved up the north.

On Tuesday, Gottheimer gave a rousing eight-minute concession speech to supporters at the IBEW Hall in Paramus. He vowed to continue the fight for a more affordable New Jersey as he returns to Congress and said Democrats need to pay more attention to economic issues that worry all voters.

“We put on the boxing gloves and fought to the final bell,” he said, alluding to his campaign commercial in which AI version of himself squared off against Trump in the ring. “Well, in the end we obviously hoped for different results. But I’m so proud of the campaign we ran and our entire team.”

In a social media post, Sweeney said: “I‘ll never stop fighting for New Jersey — and I’ll do everything I can to make sure Mikie Sherrill is our next Governor.” .

Spiller vowed to fight to help working-class residents and was notably backed by nearly $40 million in outside spending from the teacher’s union he leads. In a statement, the former Montclair mayor said: “Now is the time for all of us to come together and ensure that an extreme politician like Jack Ciattarelli never sets foot in the governor’s office.”

All the candidates shared at least two things in common: They promised to stand up to Trump and make the state more affordable.

Both Fulop and Baraka attacked Sherrill in debates and campaign ads — including over her ties to the party establishment, campaign cash she took (and later donated) from the political fundraising arm of Elon Musk’s SpaceX, and money she made off stock trades.

Another criticism was Sherrill ran too much on her bio bullet points — military and prosecutor background, mother of four — but did not get specific enough in her platform or generate the kind of enthusiasm among the base that both Fulop and Baraka did. Fulop also said she was too close to Murphy at a time voters may want to turn the page.

In the end, Fulop and Baraka appeared to split the progressive vote Tuesday.

And despite the county line’s death, Sherrill was boosted by the money and get-out-the-vote operations that come with having big party support. Sherrill supporters also argued she was a strong general-election candidate.

She’ll get a chance to prove it against Ciattarelli in what’s expected to be a heated race this fall — a referendum on both Murphy and Trump.

Ciattarelli, a moderate during his time in the state Assembly, has come to embrace Trump in recent years and scored the president’s endorsement en route to his Republican primary blowout. His victory comes after Trump finished much better in Jersey last year than the past.

Republicans have also noted Trump finished much better in the state last year than the past. in the state. But registered Democrats still outnumber registered Republicans here by about 800,000 voters.

MORE: Jack Ciattarelli wins Trump-colored Republican primary for N.J. governor

The former state lawmaker nearly unseated Gov. Phil Murphy four years ago.

The question is: Are people ready to move on from Democrats after Murphy’s two terms? Or will the Trump connection hurt Republicans?

In his victory speech Tuesday, Ciattarelli said a vote for Sherrill is “a vote for four more years of Phil Murphy.”

Sherrill dismissed Ciattarelli as a “Trump lackey” Tuesday.

I’m ready to shake up the status quo, and Jack is the status quo,“ she said. ”He’s not change, he’s a re-run. He’s a ghost of elections past.”

Even Democrats who supported Sherrill’s rivals agreed.

“We’ve got to keep that gentleman out,” Jack Collins, the president of Jersey City’s firefighters union said pointedly at Fulop’s election-night event Tuesday, gesturing to an image of Ciattarelli onscreen. “I’ve got 500 men and women worried about their pensions, their healthcare. Mikie’s got us, I believe that. He doesn’t.”

Five third-party or independent candidates also filed Tuesday to run in November’s election: Stephen Zielinski of the Green Party, Vic Kaplan of the Libertarian Party (who ran unsuccessfully for Congress last year), Joanne Kuniansky of the Socialist Workers Party (who ran unsuccessfully for governor, U.S. Senate, and state Senate in the past), Monica Brinson, and David Douglas Brown.

NJ Advance Media staff writers Richard Cowan, Jelani Gibson, and AJ McDougall contributed to his report.

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Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com.

Brianna Kudisch may be reached at bkudisch@njadvancemedia.com.