Mikie Sherrill wins Democratic primary race for N.J. governor

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In a race that featured a crowded field and plenty of uncertainty, New Jersey Rep. Mikie Sherrill, D-11, has won the Democratic primary race for governor.

The Associated Press called the race for Sherrill at 8:39 p.m., with Sherrill leading the pack with 35.3% of the vote, with 41% of votes counted.

She will face Republican challenger Jack Ciattarelli in November’s general election.

Sherrill, a former federal prosecutor and congresswoman, defeated Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop, U.S. Rep. Josh Gottheimer, New Jersey Education Association President Sean Spiller and former state Senate President Steve Sweeney.

Track New Jersey’s 2025 primary election results as they come in.

The top issue for the Democratic candidates was making life more affordable for Garden State residents. Several candidates also emphasized their position on  President Donald Trump and their opposition to his immigration policies and Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, executive orders.

During her victory speech, Sherrill said she is ready to make the state more affordable for families, protect children online and create a better future for them.

She said there are two kinds of people in this world: those who think that the only way to get ahead is by putting themselves first and those who understand that “when we all do better, we all do better, and New Jersey deserves better than what the Republican party is offering.”

“A state like this is not going to be led by a Trump lackey like Jack Ciattarelli,” Sherrill said.

She said she is ready to lead as New Jersey’s governor.

“I have fought against unfair systems and I am now going to take on systems that don’t work or only serve special interests in the only way I know how, by running to be your next governor,” Sherrill said.

She said every eye in the nation is looking to New Jersey to lead the fight against the Trump administration’s policies.

“Tonight I pledge to you we’re going to build something worthy of our state and worthy of our kids, with all of you we can take on the tough fights and win,” Sherrill said.

She said her goal in this campaign is simple.

“A New Jersey that works for everyone, not just the privileged, not just the insiders, not just those who look like us or pray like us or love like us, a New Jersey for everyone,” she said.

Sean Higgins, Sherrill’s director of communications, said the campaign will focus on introducing Sherrill to the entire state over the next several months.

“She has dedicated her life to serving the people of this country, and the people of New Jersey,” he said., “Mikie is going to be a governor for everybody, she’s going to build more housing that’s affordable, she’s going to deliver.”

Higgins said Sherrill is very different from Ciattarelli.

“Mikie is for New Jersey, and Ciattarelli is for Trump,” he said. “She’s ruthlessly focused on getting results, and I think that stands in stark contrast to Jack Ciattarelli, who is really the ghost of elections past and hasn’t really delivered a thing for New Jersey.”

At Sherrill’s headquarters, inside the ballroom of the Westin Governor Morris Hotel in Morristown, supporter Roman Hirniak, of Wharton, said he was happy that his candidate won.

“I am a proud member of the Ukrainian-American community in New Jersey,” he said. “Congresswoman Sherrill has been one of our loudest voices on Capitol Hill, she has earned my support because she is a decent human being that understands what leadership should be like on the gubernatorial level.”

Another supporter, David Genova, of Montclair, said he’s backed  Sherrill since she first ran for Congress.

“She’s been very supportive of Montclair, especially during the pandemic,” he said. “I think she’s on the right and practical side of most issues and I think she’s going to be a great governor, Mikie knows how to get things done.”

During the primary campaign the gubernatorial candidates spent more than $122 million, making it the most expensive primary race in state history.

Micah Rasmussen, the director of the Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics at Rider University, said recent polling projected Rep. Sherrill as the frontrunner, but a winner was hard to predict.

“We just did away with the county ballot line [in New Jersey] which gave preferential treatment to candidates who had the [major political] endorsements,” he said. “This time candidates were on their own, they had to make their own case, and that meant we couldn’t really model how this election was going to turn out.”

He said voter turnout for primary elections in New Jersey is usually low, and in this race voters were choosing between six different candidates, making it harder to predict voting trends.

“That means that the number of votes it takes to win the race is pretty low, and that at least raised the possibility that any of them could have gotten across that finish line,” he said.

Four years ago in the primary election for governor, about 12% of registered Democrats voted. Less than 400,000 ballots were cast in that race.

The general election will take place on Tuesday, Nov. 4.

Editor’s Note: This story was updated to correctly reflect a quote from Sean Higgins, Mikie Sherrill’s director of communications, saying that Sherrill is “going to build more housing that’s affordable.”