New Jersey gubernatorial candidates tout early voting numbers as Trump looms over tight race
ELIZABETH, N.J. – With under a week to go until Election Day and New Jersey’s gubernatorial race barreling toward a possible photo finish, both major party candidates are touting robust early voting numbers.
“We’re seeing such great results in the vote by mails and the early voting,” Democratic gubernatorial nominee Rep. Mikie Sherrill told Fox News Digital on Wednesday after a meet and greet at a senior center in this northern New Jersey city.
But Republican nominee Jack Ciattarelli, in a Fox News Digital interview before huddling with supporters at a restaurant in the central New Jersey township of Robbinsville, highlighted that “we’ve had more Republicans return vote by mail ballots than ever before.”
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The race in New Jersey — which, along with Virginia, are the only two states to hold gubernatorial contests in the year after a presidential election, giving them outsized national attention — may come down to which party does a better job energizing their voters and turning out their base.
Over 800,000 votes have already been cast in the Garden State race to succeed term-limited Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy, with the majority coming through mail-in-balloting.
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But nearly a quarter of a million people have cast a ballot in early in-person voting, which kicked off on Saturday. That figure already surpasses the turnout in the nine-day early voting period in the last gubernatorial election four years ago.
Overall, roughly double the number of registered Democrats than Republicans have voted early, which continues a trend seen in the past few election cycles.
Sherrill, a U.S. Naval Academy graduate who flew helicopters during her military career and briefly served as a federal prosecutor before first winning election to Congress in 2018, called the early voting numbers “really great news.”
“Certainly the trend is much better than ’21,” Sherrill noted, as she pointed to the gubernatorial election four years ago, when Ciattarelli, during his second bid for governor, came close to upsetting Murphy.
Ciattarelli, noting the in-person voting totals since Saturday, emphasized that “we’re matching them, voter for voter, here in the early voting. We’re in great shape. We’re heading toward a victory.”
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Asked what kind of turnout he needs next Tuesday on Election Day to overcome Sherrill’s overall early voting advantage, Ciattarelli didn’t give a number.
But he said, “It’s all about turnout, and I’m very, very pleased with the energy. The energy demonstrates that we’re gonna have a good turnout, and the fact that we’ve gotten such a warm reception in minority communities across the state, as well as the endorsement of various Democrats across state, says we’re gonna win.”
Sherrill on Thursday teams up for two events with one of the Democratic Party’s best communicators — former transportation secretary and former presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg. And the past two weekends some of the other biggest names in the party, Govs. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan and Wes Moore of Maryland, campaigned with her.
And the most popular Democrat in the country — former President Barack Obama — will headline a rally with Sherrill in Newark on Saturday during the final weekend before Election Day.
Asked if the high-profile surrogates are being used to amp up enthusiasm among Democrats, Sherrill said, “I think we’re seeing great energy.”
But Ciattarelli claimed that “her campaign has lacked energy from the very start. It’s too late now.”
Ciattarelli was joined on the campaign trail the past two weeks by two top MAGA stars and leading allies of President Donald Trump — Vivek Ramaswamy of Ohio and Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida.
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Trump headlined a tele-rally for Ciattarelli last Friday, on the eve of the start of early voting, and his campaign told Fox News Digital that another tele-rally with the president is expected before Election Day.
In a likely close election where getting base voters to the polls will be crucial, the hope is that the tele-rallies with the president, and the recent campaign trail stops by Ramaswamy and Donalds will energize MAGA supporters, many of whom are low-propensity voters who often skip casting ballots in non-presidential election years.
While Democrats have long dominated federal and state legislative elections in blue-leaning New Jersey, Republicans are very competitive in gubernatorial contests, winning five out of the past 10 elections.
And Trump made major gains in New Jersey in last year’s presidential election, losing the state by only six percentage points, a vast improvement over his 16-point deficit four years earlier.
This year’s gubernatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia are viewed, in part, as ballot-box referendums on Trump’s unprecedented and explosive second-term agenda.
At this month’s second and final debate, Sherrill charged that her GOP rival had “shown zero signs of standing up to this president. In fact, the president himself called Jack 100% MAGA, and he’s shown every sign of being that.”
Asked whether he considered himself part of the MAGA movement, Ciattarelli said he was “part of a New Jersey movement.”
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When asked to grade the president’s performance so far during his second term, Ciattarelli said, “I’d certainly give the president an A. I think he’s right about everything that he’s doing.”
“I think that tells us all we need to know about who Jack Ciattarelli’s supporting. I give him an F right now,” Sherrill responded, as she pointed to New Jersey’s high cost of living.
In the weeks since the final debate, Sherrill has highlighted that Ciattarelli gave Trump an A rating.
At her senior center stop on Wednesday, Sherrill argued that Trump is a political anchor on Ciattarelli.
“Given that the president is raising costs on everyone, it really hurts anyone associated with him and certainly my opponent has really gone in lockstep with the president, giving him an A,” she charged.
Ciattarelli, a one-time certified public accountant who started a medical publishing company before getting into politics and winning election as a state lawmaker, landed Trump’s endorsement earlier this year, in the GOP gubernatorial nomination race. Trump’s backing helped Ciattarelli cruise to an easy and convincing primary victory in a nomination race that centered on support for the president.
He has repeatedly criticized Sherrill for her focus on Trump, and said earlier this month that “there’s obviously a whole lot of people across the state of New Jersey that are pleased with the job the president’s doing.”
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