On Nov. 4, New Jersey voters delivered a decisive 14-point victory to Democrat Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill over Republican rival Jack Ciattarelli, sparing the state of the rightward turn that some feared.
Yet this triumph was not a progressive win; Sherrill, the former congresswoman from Montclair campaigned as a stabilizer, not a disruptor, promising affordability while social justice advocates hoped for bolder social change.
Political analysts have looped Sherrill’s win into a broader “blue wave” on the East Coast, but she might represent more continuity than disruption. Progressives like Zohran Mamdani rode election-night momentum, but Sherrill is a centrist with policies leaning moderate and sometimes contradicting herself or being vague, especially when it comes to immigration policies.
While her overwhelming win signals widespread resistance to Trump-era Republicans, many advocates remain cautious about the prospects for transformative change under her administration.
“There’s a lot of hesitation and no one was really too proud to talk about it, and no one really was advocating for her,” said Ali Aljarrah, senior advisor for CAIR Action.
Sherrill’s popularity is rooted in her campaign on affordability. She promised to declare a state of emergency on utility costs, freeze rate hikes, and push back on Trump’s tariffs and rising rental prices–resonating deeply with working class voters.
“Candidates like Zohran Mamdani, who also ran on the message of affordability, really kind of set the tone for a lot of Democrats during this cycle,” said Antoinette Miles, state director of the New Jersey Working Families Party. “I think the message is clear that people want candidates and leaders who will stand up to Trump, his policies, and not accommodate him.”
Voter turnout shows not just a rejection of Trumpism, but a demand for protection and bold social justice change.
The numbers speak for themselves, as 3.6 million New Jerseyans voted this November, the highest registered voter turnout in a state election since 1998. Much of turnout came from communities of color who fought to keep Ciaterelli out of office.
Sherrill’s campaign hit home in municipalities with majority Hispanic voters. In Hudson County, home to the highest Latine population in New Jersey, Sherrill won by 50 points. She drew 94% of the Black vote and 82% of the Asian vote. Her largest voter base came from those making under $50,000 a year.
Many voters, especially those belonging to communities of color, cast their ballots more to block Ciattarelli than enthusiasm for Sherrill’s platform.
In the June primary election, progressive-leaning candidates Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop held a combined 36% of votes, compared to Mikie Sherrill’s 34%. The mayors earned 308,542 votes in the primary, predominantly from Essex and Union counties, which both rank among the top most diverse areas in New Jersey.
The record turnout signals New Jersey’s voter base wants social change. According to Miles, now is the time to connect with an engaged electorate that is waking up to working class power and that is losing faith in both two parties.
Building class-conscious unity will create the solidarity needed to drive real systemic change.
“We are unequivocal about delivering a different type of politics in New Jersey, and unequivocal about the things that we believe in,” said Miles.
Aljarrah sees Sherill as similar to former President Joe Biden in many ways, especially when it comes to their moderate liberal policies. When Ciatarelli cozied up with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and publicly opposed same-sex marriage, it became clear to voters that Sherrill was the more sensible choice.
“We’re all interested to see: Is she going to be like Joe Biden, where she’s really going to be pushed to tackle on progressive policies, because those seem to be the most popular ones in New Jersey, or not?” said Aljarrah.
Working in South Paterson, in the heart of New Jersey’s Little Palestine, Aljarrah is especially in tune with the needs of New Jersey’s Muslim and Arab communities. Palestinian sovereignty is a key concern to these voters. The community’s primary concern is the state bill pushing for the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism. The bill could label workers, students, educators, and activists who support Palestine as antisemitic.
Ciaterelli’s concerted effort to silence criticism of Israel turned away thousands of voters from this demographic. But Sherrill’s stance on the IHRA bill remains unclear. She has publicly received over $182,000 from AIPAC and has supported a federal version of New Jersey’s antisemitism definition bill; however, she has not commented on New Jersey’s IHRA bill.
Sherrill’s current front-runner attorney general candidate, John McKeon, has a questionable track record when it comes to IHRA. McKeon helped to co-sponsor the IHRA definition bill, which allocates $100,000 to the Office of the Attorney General for a “public awareness campaign aimed at promoting bias crime reporting in New Jersey.”
“We kind of understood that she was better [than Ciatarelli] on [IHRA], on immigration,” said Aljarrah. “And members of our community, the Muslim and Arab community, have been taken away by ICE. So this is an actual issue for our communities.”
Sherrill’s stance on protecting immigrant communities also remains uncertain. A bill in the state Legislature, for example, would codify existing immigrant protections, but Sherrill hasn’t publicly stated whether or not she supports the legislation.
While she claims to stand up to Trump, Sherrill has not provided a concrete stance on immigration protections in New Jersey as the president enacts his mass deportation plan.
Advocates are fighting to pass immigrant protections before she steps into office.
“There is no other policy that can provide the safeguards, nor a first line of defense against federal overreach,” said Madison Linton of the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice at a recent press conference.
Political organizers are determined to hold Sherrill accountable, pushing her on progressive policies. Their work of building power and demanding more begins now, not after inauguration. Thirty-three nonprofit organizations have launched an initiative to push state legislators to advance key social justice bills during the current session. The goal is to secure protections for voting rights, climate action, and reproductive health before the legislative clock resets with the incoming administration.
Against this backdrop, advocates say Sherill’s win was a strategic necessity: not out of enthusiasm for her platform, but as a way to create space for further advocacy and coalition-building. Miles of the New Jersey Working Families Party explained:
“We know the heartbreak of the two-party system, and we know the cruelty of when government is being used against our communities as a means to extract and give over to the wealthy. And I think that we stand at the intersection of understanding that electing Mikie Sherrill was critical to creating the conditions in which we can organize and ask for more when we need to, and also delivering on the things that we want to for working people. It was absolutely a part of our strategy in this past election to make sure that Mikie Sherrill was elected, because there was no way to win for working people if Jack Ciaterelli was elected.”
Political organizers and voters fought to keep New Jersey blue by electing Sherrill. Now, she must do more than simply not being Ciaterelli or Trump. Throughout the next four years, activists will need vigilant oversight of the governor-elect’s commitments to New Jersey’s most marginalized.
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