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Democrat Mikie Sherrill has been elected as the 57th governor of New Jersey, defeating General Assembly Member Jack Ciattarelli, a Republican endorsed by President Donald Trump.
Sherrill is a former Navy pilot and has represented New Jersey’s 11th U.S. House district since she was elected in 2018.
“We here in New Jersey are bound to fight for a different future for our children,” Sherrill told her supporters on Tuesday, Nov. 4, according to the Associated Press. “We see how clearly important liberty is. We know that no one in our great state is safe when our neighbors are targeted, ignoring the law and the Constitution.”
Sherrill was joined on stage at the Hilton East Brunswick Hotel by her husband and children.
This was Ciattarelli’s third attempt to run for governor. He lost in the Republican primary in 2017 and narrowly lost to Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy in the 2021 gubernatorial race. Ciattarelli, 63, announced he would run again in April 2024.
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Nearly a year later, in May, Trump endorsed the politician ahead of this year’s Republican primary. Despite Ciattarelli’s previous critiques of the president, Trump endorsed him, saying, Ciattarelli got to “know and understand MAGA,” according to NPR.
Former President Barack Obama endorsed Sherrill and recently joined her on the campaign trail.
The four-term congresswoman announced her run in November 2024. She will succeed Murphy, who is limited to two consecutive terms as governor. This is the first time since 1961 that Democrats have won three gubernatorial elections in a row in the state, according to The Hill. Democrats also hold a majority in New Jersey’s legislature.
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During the final days of the campaign, the two candidates began attacking each other’s backgrounds. Ciattarelli criticized Sherrill’s decision not to walk during the U.S. Naval Academy commencement ceremony in 1994.
The congresswoman explained she didn’t walk because she didn’t turn in classmates who were implicated in a massive cheating scandal, according to the New Jersey Globe. Her service was never impacted, and months later, she was assigned to Annapolis and waited for a spot to open up at the Navy flight school in Pensacola, Fla.
She served in the Navy for almost a decade and worked as a Sea King helicopter pilot, who flew missions throughout Europe and the Middle East, according to her website.
However, Ciattarelli pushed her to make her military disciplinary records public. A Ciattarelli supporter obtained an unredacted copy of her military records, which included her and her family’s personal information, reports CBS News. He denied putting a request in for the files at the PIX11 News gubernatorial forum, reports The Hill.
Sherrill also accused Ciattarelli and his medical publishing firm of “publishing misinformation about the dangers of opioid addiction” to New Jersey residents. He denied her claims and said he would file a defamation lawsuit against her, according to CBS News.
