Four-term House Rep. fends off underdog GOP challenger to become the second woman to lead the Garden State.
BRIDGEWATER, N.J.—U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.) will be New Jersey’s 57th governor and the Garden State’s second-ever woman chief executive with a narrow win over Republican Jack Ciattarelli in their Nov. 5 gubernatorial race.
Sherrill, a Navy veteran who has served four terms in the House, garnered 56 percentage points to Ciattarelli’s 42 percentage points to succeed term-limited Democrat Gov. Phil Murphy. The Associated Press called the race at 9:23 p.m. ET.
Sherrill’s victory marks the first time New Jersey voters have elected a governor from the same party in three consecutive elections since 1961, when Democrat Richard Hughes followed two-term Gov. Robert Meyner. The last time Republicans did this was 1907.
For Ciattarelli, it was another oh-so-close underdog race in a state where there are about 900,000 more registered Democrats than Republicans.
The medical journal publisher, certified public accountant, and former four-term state assemblyman lost his first gubernatorial bid in 2017 in the GOP primary and his second in 2021 to Murphy in the general election by 3 percentage points, about 84,000 votes.
The last Somerset County Republican to win a New Jersey governor’s race was Christine Todd Whitman, who until Sherrill’s Nov. 4 win was also the only woman to lead the state.
Third Time Not a Charm
Ciattarelli, and Republicans in general across New Jersey, were relying on a strong Election Day showing by unaffiliated voters who tend to vote for conservatives when they show up to vote. Voters also cast ballots in state assembly and municipal elections.
A Nov. 1 New Jersey Decision of Elections update shows there are 2.53 million Democrats, 2.36 million unaffiliated, and 1.67 million Republicans among the state’s 6.63 million registered voters. The GOP has grown by nearly 31,000 voters in 2025 while registered Democrats have declined by more than 11,000.
In the last 10 days of the campaign, a series of polls indicated the race was tightening, with Sherrill’s lead a slim 1 percentage point.
After President Donald Trump amassed 100,000 more votes in 2024 than he did in 2020, losing New Jersey to Democrat Kamala Harris by less than 6 percentage points—the closest a Republican presidential candidate has come to winning in New Jersey since 1992—it appeared momentum was favoring Ciattarelli.
Those unaffiliated voter numbers and momentum, however, didn’t go Ciattarelli’s way.
