Before last Sunday’s New Jersey gubernatorial debate, Republican businessman Jack Ciattarelli trailed Democrat Mikie Sherrill by 8.7 points in the RealClearPolitics polling average. But Ciattarelli’s stellar debate performance appears to have moved the needle — in a big way. A new Emerson College Polling/PIX11/The Hill survey released on Thursday found the pair tied at 43%, with 11% of voters undecided.
[Ahead of the debate, Ciattarelli’s internal polling showed him ahead of Sherrill by 1 point, 46% to 45%. A previous internal poll showed Sherrill leading by 3 points.]
It should be noted that New Jersey polls tend to favor Democratic candidates. For example, Ciattarelli challenged incumbent Gov. Phil Murphy in 2021, and despite trailing the governor by 7.8% in the RealClearPolitics polling average on the eve of the election, Ciattarelli lost by just 3.2%.
Likewise, although former Vice President Kamala Harris was widely expected to defeat President Donald Trump in New Jersey — and the RealClearPolitics polling average reflected just two surveys projecting a 12- to 20-point margin — Trump ultimately lost by only 6 points.
Sherrill, a U.S. Naval Academy graduate and former Navy helicopter pilot who now represents New Jersey’s 11th District in Congress, boasts an impressive résumé. Yet her weak performance in the first of two debates with Ciattarelli suggested that her political skills leave much to be desired. Her quick, incomplete, and unconvincing responses, criticism over her failure to report questionable stock transactions within Congress’s required timeframe, the tripling of her stated net worth since taking office in 2019, and lingering questions about her absence from the Naval Academy’s graduation ceremony all added to the impression of a candidate on the defensive.
Asked if she planned to raise taxes on New Jerseyans, she replied, “I’m not gonna commit to anything right now. Because I’m not just going to tell you what you want to hear.” [Loud boos from the audience can be heard.]
Both candidates were questioned about their positions on New Jersey’s Immigrant Trust Directive. Enacted in 2018, this measure “restricts state and local law enforcement from stopping, questioning, or arresting individuals based on immigration status and limits their participation in civil immigration enforcement to build trust with immigrant communities.” In other words, New Jersey is a sanctuary state.
When a voter asked her to clarify if she, as governor, would continue this initiative, she obfuscated. When the voter asked her point-blank if that was “a yes or a no,” Sherrill responded, “What I’m gonna do is make sure we’re following the law and the constitution. So that’ll include due process rights and the Constitution.” Right.
Ciattarelli took the floor and said, “I don’t think she answered your question. Executive order number one on day one, we’re getting rid of the Immigrant Trust Directive here in New Jersey.” His reply was met with wild applause.
In another exchange, Sherrill told voters, “I’m going to make sure that he doesn’t get to serve again when I win for governor in November of this year.”
A very confident Ciattarelli countered, “There’s another big difference between her public service and my public service. It actually cost me money, the time I put in, and took away from my company.
“In the seven years that she’s been in Congress, she’s tripled her net worth. There’s another big difference between the two of us. She broke the law. She had to pay fines for violating federal law on stock trades and stock reporting and the New York Times reports that while you were sitting on the House Armed Services Committee, you were trading defense stocks.”
According to Business Insider, Ciattarelli’s accusation is correct.
Rep. Mikie Sherrill, a Democrat of New Jersey, failed to properly disclose up to $350,000 in stock sales, in violation of a federal conflict-of-interest law.Federally required disclosure documents show that Sherrill’s husband, Jason Hedberg, sold between $100,001 to $250,000 worth of stock in financial services company UBS in April. He then sold between $50,001 to $100,000 worth of USB stocks in June.Sherrill reported the transactions on December 3, months beyond the 45 day-deadline for such trades. The documents in question are known as periodic transaction reports, or PTRs.Sherrill’s office attributed the late filing to an oversight and said she proactively paid a late fee.
As for tripling her net worth, the New York Post reported:
Sherrill, who makes an annual salary of $174,000 representing New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District, reported assets totaling between $733,209 and $4,321,000 in her 2019 financial disclosure, according to the Washington Free Beacon.Her latest disclosure – which was filed in August and includes comments from Sherrill indicating the exact value of her and her husband’s assets – shows the gubernatorial candidate’s net worth grew to $11,321,863.That’s a $7 million increase from the upper bound value of her assets in 2019.
Another defining moment of the debate came when the candidates were asked how they would address the recent surge in electricity prices in the state.
Sherrill’s solution was to “freeze electricity rate hikes.”
Ciattarelli came prepared with a plan to lower prices. In the clip below, he explains in detail how New Jersey shifted from being an electricity-exporting state to an importer under Gov. Phil Murphy. He detailed precisely how he would expand the supply of electricity to bring down rates. His plan includes pulling New Jersey out of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a program he said “costs New Jerseyans a half a billion dollars annually.”
Sherrill’s poor performance ultimately left little doubt about the debate’s outcome. Rather than addressing questions head-on, she bobbed and weaved, offering vague statements that revealed no concrete plans. Ciattarelli, by contrast, projected sincerity and came armed with specific, real-world solutions to the challenges New Jersey residents face every day. When the dust settled, the contrast was unmistakable: one candidate demonstrated the readiness and substance required to lead the state — while the other left serious doubts about her capacity to govern.
The full debate can be viewed below:
Elizabeth writes commentary for Legal Insurrection and The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation. Please follow Elizabeth on X or LinkedIn.
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