New Jersey election: Jack Ciattarelli wins GOP nomination in governor's race, Mikie Sherrill wins Democratic primary

Democratic U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill and Republican Jack Ciattarelli will go head-to-head in November in a closely-watched race to be New Jersey’s next governor.

The Associated Press called both primary races before 8:40 p.m., based on unofficial results.

Sherrill, 53, defeated five opponents in the uniquely competitive primary, in which she was the only woman. If she wins in November, she’ll be the second female governor in the state’s history and the first to hold the office in more than two decades, succeeding term-limited Democrat Gov. Phil Murphy.

Just as she started her speech quoting Thomas Payne, Sherrill concluded her victory speech by quoting George Washington.

“Fix the bayonets. I'm resolved to take Trenton,” she said.

She was met with roaring applause.

U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill shared a message of unity for the six Democrats who competed in the race in her victory speech.

Sherrill said the primary field demonstrated that the Democratic Party in New Jersey is ready to fight.

“We had six public servants run in this primary,” she said. “Each had a different method, a different voice, a different experience, but we all shared one vision: 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.”

U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill went on the offense against her now-opponent Jack Ciattarelli and his endorsement from President Donald Trump.

Sherrill called Ciattarelli, who is running for governor for the third time, a “ghost of elections past” and a “rerun.”

“This state is not going to be led by a Trump lackey like Jack Ciattarelli,” she said.

Ras Baraka, arriving shortly before 9:30 p.m. to a crowded room of supporters in an upscale downtown Newark hotel, all but conceded his bid for New Jersey governor after multiple news outlet called the race for U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill.

"The realty is, we are never going to concede fighting authoritarianism," Baraka said. "This is the beginning," he added, "not the end."

Flanked by his wife and young child, Baraka, a bonafide progressive and longtime mayor of Newark, promised supporters he would continue to fight for economic justice and working people.

U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill began her speech by tying New Jersey's past to the future.

“Hello New Jersey!” Sherrill shouted, greeting a room of supporters chanting her name.

With her husband and four teenage children by her side, Sherrill began her speech by saying New Jersey knows how to make history. She quoted Thomas Paine, saying he reminded people “what was at stake, and why we fight, and he did not sugar coat it,” she said.

Ciattarelli's victory was "sweet news" for Maria Concepcion Powell, wearing a hat bearing the Republican candidate's name. 

The CEO of the U.S. Women Grocers Association, Powell, 66, of New Brunswick, said she's found a receptive and enthusiastic supporter in Ciattarelli. 

"We are out there by the thousands, creating grocery businesses for women working to break the glass ceiling in our industry," she said. "And Jack is willing to empower the business women in New Jersey." 

Addressing a loud crowd, Jack Ciattarelli said, "We're not done. We are not done."

He thanked his supporters for their votes, saying that their support at the ballot box won his campaign all 21 counties in New Jersey. Ciattarelli added that he wanted to thank another important part-time New Jersey resident.

"Thank you President Donald J. Trump," he said.

U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill’s four kids and husband took the stage to introduce her at 9:20 p.m. Sherrill’s daughter Maggie took the microphone to introduce Sherrill, calling her mom a superhero. 

When the crowd cheered, she gushed “I love her too.” 

Maggie shared her disappointment of Hillary Clinton losing in 2016 and the overturning of Roe v. Wade, and she said she plans to follow her mother’s footsteps and serve in the Naval Academy.

Upbeat pop music blasted in a ballroom upstairs at the Westin Governor Morris in Morristown in Essex County Tuesday night after the Associated Press called the race for U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill.

Supporters chatted with big grins and campaign signs in hand as they waited for Sherrill to take the stage for a speech.

Zion Slava, 18, an intern for Sherrill’s campaign, said he found out about Sherrill’s victory when a fellow intern showed him the AP call on their phone. A group of interns celebrated together in what he called a “great moment.”

As news spread that Jack Ciattarelli had won the Republican primary, supporters at his election party in Holmdel pressed forward near the stage like concertgoers in a mosh pit, waiting for the newly minted Republican candidate to appear.

People hugged, slapped MAGA hats onto their heads, and joyously declared the victory.

“Here we go!” a man yelled. “Right to Trenton.”

U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill won the Democratic primary in the New Jersey governor’s race, the Associated Press projected.

Sherrill, 53, defeated five opponents in the competitive primary, in which she was the only woman. If she wins in November, she would be the second female governor in the state’s history and the first woman to hold the office in more than two decades, succeeding term-limited Democrat Gov. Phil Murphy.

She celebrated with supporters at The Westin Governor Morris in Morristown in North Jersey.

With Jack Ciattarelli holding a significant early lead, one party goer at his election night gathering remarked that it should be an early night.

“Good,” another person said. “I’d like to get on the highway home before the deer start running around.”

At 8:17 p.m., the Associated Press called the Republican race for Ciattarelli.

For Street Counsel, a 51-year-old Newark native, supporting Ras Baraka for governor was an obvious choice.

"The evidence is clear," Counsel said of Baraka's decade-long mayoral record in the North Jersey metropolis. "Historic low crime, fresh, clean water. He's an educator."

Above Baraka's accomplishments in local office, Counsel sees the Democratic candidate as an embodiment of Newark itself. In Counsel's telling, the city is a "fighting" town where residents expect a certain toughness in a candidate.

Jack Ciattarelli, a three-time candidate for New Jersey governor, won the Republican primary Tuesday with the backing of President Donald Trump.

Ciattarelli, 63, lost the Republican primary in 2017. He went on to win the nomination in 2021 and came within about three points of Gov. Phil Murphy in 2021, a term-limited Democrat.

On Tuesday he defeated former conservative radio host Bill Spadea, former Englewood Cliffs Mayor Mario Kranjac, contractor Justin Barbera, and state Sen. Jon Bramnick, the only candidate critical of Trump.

Polls are officially closed as of 8 p.m. Tuesday. following a relatively calm day of voting during which no major issues were reported at polling places around the state. 

Voter turnout may be higher than usual in the state this primary, with nearly 500,000 New Jersey voters having already cast their ballots in advance of Tuesday's election via mail ballots and early in-person voting. Overall, about 11% of the state's voters had cast their ballots when election day arrived. 

Now, clerks will begin tabulating and reporting the results for the Democrat and Republican nominees who will appear on November's ballot. 

Around 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, dozens of supporters of Republican gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli crowded into a low-slung, sprawling event venue at Bell Works, a mixed-use property on the former site of the Bell Labs complex in Holmdel, N.J.

The laser, transistor, and scientific theories connected to the Big Bang theory were developed there.

What Ciattarelli backers were hoping to create themselves was a powerful pulse of energy to propel the former state lawmaker into the governor’s mansion after two unsuccessful tries.

Supporters of Ras Baraka, the Newark mayor and progressive bona fide running for New Jersey governor in a crowded field of Democrats, are slowly trickling into the candidate's election night party in the Robert Treat Hotel ballroom around 7:45 p.m.

The upscale hotel sits in the center of downtown Newark, New Jersey's largest city and an area where Baraka is relying on a strong turnout.

Baraka has strong roots in the bustling metro on the outskirts of New York City; before the 55-year-old was elected mayor in 2014, he was a local high school principal, and later served as a Newark council member.

Reports emerged on social media Tuesday evening that some unaffiliated voters had been turned away from polling places because they were not registered with a party.

New Jersey law, however, allows voters to declare a party affiliation on election day at their polling place.

Unaffiliated voters in New Jersey cannot vote in partisan primaries. But if those voters want to vote in the Republican or Democratic primary they can change their party affiliation that day and cast a ballot, according to the New Jersey Secretary of State’s office. Those voters can then change their party affiliation back to unaffiliated anytime.

Musician Ms. Lauryn Hill encouraged her followers to vote for Newark Mayor Ras Baraka just about two hours before the polls close.

Baraka, a spoken word poet and former educator who has led the city of Newark for a decade, can be heard playing the part of a teacher on Hill’s 1998 album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.

“Only a few hours left before the polls close, please VOTE!” Hill posted on X around 6 p.m. “Ras Baraka for Governor of NJ.”

John Petronchak, a retired truck diesel mechanic who voted for Jack Ciattarelli in the Republican primary, said President Donald Trump’s endorsement didn’t sway his vote, but it also didn’t hurt.

Petronchak, 65, of Fairfield in Essex County, said he has attended two of Ciattarelli’s speeches and found him impressive. He also voted for Ciattarelli in 2021.

“He seems honest,” Petronchak said. “I think he's gonna put us first.”

Dean Horneck, 31, said he voted for U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill in the Democratic primary because he believes the state needs a woman governor.

Sherrill would be the second-ever woman governor in the state and the first Democratic one.

“Oh boy, there's a lot going on right now," he said with a sigh. "There's a lot of issues, and some particularly affecting women, some particularly affecting everyone,” said Horneck, a lawyer who lives in Fairfield in Essex County in Sherrill’s district. 

Tara Smith, a teacher, and her daughter Chloe Smith, 23, a recent college graduate going into private banking, both said they voted for Newark Mayor Ras Baraka in the Democratic primary for governor, but for different reasons.

The Smiths live in Fairfield and previously lived in Montclair, both in Essex County in U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill’s district.

Tara Smith said she was deciding between voting for Baraka and Sherrill, but decided on Baraka because she likes the positive change he brought to Newark and believes he’s handled greater obstacles as an elected official than Sherrill has.

At the Sea Isle City branch of the Cape May County Library, poll workers said they were surprised at the turnout.

"Way better than I thought it would be," said Toni Grdinich. Workers estimated that turnout was about 20% at 5:35 p.m. among the two wards with a total of 1,000 registered voters, not including vote by mail. With a municipal election last month, Grdinich said she expected a lackluster day.

"I thought people would have voter burnout, but they are actually very engaged."

Outside the James J. Cullen Community Center in Hazlet, Monmouth County, locals Freddie and Linda Moore declared that they voted “against woke” for governor — which meant they voted for former state lawmaker and businessman Jack Ciatarrelli.

“He’s for business, not woke,” said Freddie Moore, 72, a former New York City train operator. “I don’t want immigrants, trans-people, DEI — all that crap.”

He said he was impressed that President Donald Trump endorsed Ciatarrelli, and Trump is just fine with Moore.

At the Sea Isle City Library, on a day that had turned into a beach after early drizzles, Ryan Myers, 42, manager of the Sunset Pier restaurant, said he was an independent who declared Democratic to vote in the primary. He voted for Ras Baraka for governor.

He wanted a choice that was "a little bit outside of the norm." He was familiar with Steve Fulop and Steve Sweeney, and "not the biggest fan."

He said he thought about electability but decided that was not the biggest factor.

Dale and Denise Bauer, who voted at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Cherry Hill, intentionally register in different parties.

They don’t always follow the party line, so they read and do their research together to determine the very best candidates — regardless of their party affiliation — and make a plan how to vote between them.

In primaries, Denise says, “the two of us vote for different parties at times, and sometimes if we want to split a ticket, one can vote on their party, and I vote on my party. So we’re each registered in two different parties in order to do that."

At the Gloucester Township Blackwood Rotary Public Library, Nicole Landis, 52, said she voted for Mikie Sherrill because she felt a connection with her.

“She just clicked with me,” Landis said, noting that it mattered to her that Sherrill was also a woman and a mother. “[She] speaks to the kind of person I am.”

While Landis thought Phil Murphy had done some positive things in charge of the state, she said “it’s been a little stale” in New Jersey Democratic politics, and that Sherrill would bring a fresh perspective and “a different voice.”

In Atlantic City, voters were deciding whether to nominate incumbent Mayor Marty Small Sr. in the Democratic mayoral primary despite facing trial later this summer on charges of physically and emotionally abusing his daughter. His wife, Superintendent of Schools La'Quetta Small, is also facing trial on child endangerment charges.

Despite being under indictment, Small was endorsed by the city's police and fire unions, and was running on a ticket with gubernatorial candidate Steven Fulop, who attended a fund raiser at Small's home this spring.

Outside the Venice Park United Methodist Church, voters gave a thumbs up to two campaign workers for Marty Small as they entered the church to vote. Small is the fifth Atlantic City mayor to face indictment.

Quiet polling sites don’t tell the whole story of voter turnout this year.

Nearly 481,000 New Jersey voters already cast their ballots in advance of Tuesday through mail ballots and early in-person voting, according to Ryan Dubicki, an elections researcher with the Associated Press.

Statewide, there are 4,091,545 million voters registered in the Democratic and Republican parties. That means that more than 11% of eligible voters have already cast their ballots.

At the Venice Park School just off Route 30 in Atlantic City, Daj Blackwell, 50, said she was enthusiastically supporting Steve Sweeney for governor.

As a "proud housekeeper" at Hard Rock Casino, and a member of UniteHERE Local 54, Blackwell said she appreciated Sweeney's work on behalf of her union, specifically working to pass a law mandating "panic buttons" in hotel rooms.

"He's one of the ones that got the panic button for us, for our protection," she said. "Because you know, housekeepers are in danger. Steve Sweeney has always been on the right side of us."

Despite campaign signs lining the roads for "South Jersey's Steve Sweeney," two Democratic voters in Cherry Hill said they were throwing their support behind Sean Spiller, president of the New Jersey Education Association and former mayor of Montclair.

Tom Love, 59, said he appreciated Spiller's role as head of the state's largest teachers union and saw him as "somebody fresh" who has "probably got a lot of really creative ideas."

Love, who voted by mail, said he's concerned most about freedom of speech and LGBTQ+ rights, which he said are "systematically being taken away."

Voters at Yorkship Family Elementary School in south Camden were split on who they believed should represent the Democratic Party in the general election.

Deborah Diem-Martin, 72, said she voted for Stephen Sweeney because “he always impressed me as someone who was very sincere about what he was doing.” The retiree said she knows Sweeney personally through her husband’s work with the city of Camden, and said he understands South Jersey, which is not often the case with other politicians from the state. Diem-Martin said she believes Sweeney would not let President Donald Trump push him or New Jersey around, either. “He will tell Trump what to do and how to do it, often in not so polite terms,” she said.

Fighting back against the current president and his administration is her top issue. She met Trump once, some 30 years ago when her husband was working in Atlantic City, and was not endeared to the hotel magnate. “I thought he was slimey back then,” she said.

Justin Barbera, a Republican candidate for governor who touts his lack of fundraising, was arrested last week for failing to pay child support. He told The Inquirer he owes the money because of health issues.

Barbera said in a Tuesday morning interview he previously struggled to pay child support because of pemphigus vulgaris, an autoimmune disease, and has now been struggling with a year-old work-related foot injury that he is awaiting worker’s compensation for in order to pay.

Barbera, an insurance claim contractor, said he has not been working for a year.

Ras Baraka

Ras Baraka, 56, has been the mayor of Newark for a decade. He was previously a teacher and principal in Newark, and served on City Council. The son of poet, playwright, and activist Amiri Baraka, the mayor is also a poet, and his voice is featured on Beyoncé’s current tour.

Steven Fulop

Jon Bramnick

State Sen. Jon Bramnick, 72, was elected to his position in 2021 and represents parts of Middlesex, Morris, Somerset and Union Counties. He previously served in the state Assembly, holding various leadership roles including almost a decade as the Republican leader. He lives in Westfield in Union County and is a trial lawyer and stand-up comedian.

Justin Barbera

Democratic and Republican voters across New Jersey will decide their party nominees for governor on Tuesday in a race that could provide early indications of voter sentiment ahead of the midterm elections.

This year’s contest is uniquely expensive and competitive, with voters already signaling greater interest than with recent primaries.

Across the country, observers view it as a test of the first year of President Donald Trump’s second administration. Virginia is the only other state with a governor’s race this year, and its primaries are uncontested.

If it seems strange that New Jersey voters are choosing gubernatorial nominees on an odd year, it is.

New Jersey is one of only four states in the nation that hold statewide elections in odd years, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

The other three are Louisiana, Mississippi, and Virginia; Virginia is the only other electing a governor this year. The tradition was established in 1947 in the Garden State, the year New Jersey voters ratified a new state constitution. In a blog post by a conference election expert, Gov. Alfred E. Driscoll was quoted as telling the constitutional convention that the “election for a governor and for assemblymen should not coincide with a presidential election.

While New Jersey would not qualify as a “battleground” state in a presidential election, the gap between Democratic and Republican registrants has been closing, according to the state’s final pre-primary numbers.

The June numbers show Democrats holding a 60-40 registration advantage, down from the 62-38 edge they held in June 2024, and 64-36 in 2021.

In all, Republican registrations increased by over 60,000 from last June, and more than 100,000 over 2021. In that same four-period period, the Democratic numbers were down by more than 100,000.

When are polls open?

Polls are open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. on election day. Voters in line by 8 p.m. will still be allowed to vote — don’t leave.

Where is my polling place?