NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. (AP) — Democrat Mikie Sherrill and Republican Jack Ciattarelli will go head-to-head Wednesday in their final debate for New Jersey governor, as the federal government shutdown, Sherrill's military records and the high cost of living have become major issues in the closely watched race.
New Jersey is one of two states, along with Virginia, electing governors this fall — contests that are being viewed as a measure of how voters feel
about President Donald Trump's second term and how Democrats are responding.
The hourlong debate gives the candidates a chance to cement their pitches to voters, who have already begun mailing in ballots ahead of the Nov. 4 election. Early in-person voting is scheduled for Oct. 25 to Nov. 2.
New Jersey has gone Democratic in presidential and Senate contests for decades, but it's alternated between Republicans and Democrats in its odd-year elections for governor. Going back to the 1980s, voters went with the nominee from the party opposite of the president’s. But term-limited Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy broke that pattern in 2021 when he won reelection narrowly over Ciattarelli, now in his third campaign for governor.
The state, however, has grown more conservative in recent years, with Trump losing last November to Democrat Kamala Harris by just 6 points — a dramatic swing from his nearly 13-point deficit in 2016.
In their first debate, the candidates clashed pointedly, with Ciattarelli calling his opponent's promises vague and dishonest and Sherrill tying Ciattarelli to Trump and questioning the former business owner and accountant's math skills. Trump endorsed Ciattarelli in the GOP primary, saying he’d gone “ALL IN” and was "now 100% (PLUS!)” on the president's “Make America Great Again” agenda, despite past criticism.
Here's what to watch for in the debate, televised locally on ABC:
The candidates are taking different approaches on the federal government shutdown, which started last week.
One key difference centers on the Hudson River rail project, which has been decades in the planning and would replace more than century-old tunnels connecting New Jersey and New York City. The Trump administration has used the shutdown as a pretext to freeze funding for the project amid a review of its compliance with the administration's diversity policies.
Sherrill, a four-term congresswoman elected during Trump's first midterm to a longtime GOP-held seat, has advocated for funding throughout her time in office and has sharply criticized the freeze, holding a news conference outside a suburban New York rail station.
She could lean into the effect the shutdown could have on the project, which is continuing work for now, though it's unclear when federal reimbursements might run out if the shutdown drags on.
“Trump has frozen the funding for this all important project. And what has Jack Ciattarelli said? Not much,” Sherrill said at the recent event in Glen Ridge, New Jersey.
Ciattarelli has blasted Sherrill as responsible for the shutdown as a member of Congress. Look for him to criticize her for voting for previous continuing resolutions that kept the government open under former President Joe Biden despite voting against the current Republican-backed measure.
Another topic likely to be raised in the debate stems from two related but separate stories about Sherrill's time in the Navy. One story detailed how Sherrill's mostly unredacted military record was released to a Republican operative close to Ciattarelli's campaign. The other centers on news that Sherrill did not participate in the 1994 graduation from the Naval Academy amid fallout that year from a well-documented cheating scandal.
Sherrill said she was barred from walking because she did not turn in fellow classmates. She still graduated, was commissioned and went on to become a helicopter pilot.
Ciattarelli's campaign has called on her to release additional records to back up that defense, but she has declined.
“If those sealed disciplinary records match Representative Sherrill’s current explanation, we are unsure why she would refuse to release the records and put this matter to rest,” the campaign said in an email.
In a recent interview, Sherrill said her files show a “record of service."
“I’m certainly not going to allow him," she said, "to rampage through the records of my classmates at the academy.”
Instead, Sherrill’s campaign has seized on the improper release of information to the National Archives with personal information unredacted.
Her campaign has publicized an inspector general's investigation into the release, and she's published letters online from the archives, including an apology saying the records were given out “in error.”
It’s not clear whether any of the records the National Archives released in error were related to the reasons she was not allowed to participate in the graduation ceremony.
Both candidates are hammering the high cost of living in New Jersey. Sherrill has said she'd issue an executive order freezing utility rates, which have climbed steadily over the summer. Ciattarelli talks about capping sky-high property taxes as a percentage of home value.
Ciattarelli blames the economic woes on longtime Democratic control of the state Legislature and the governorship for the past eight years. Calling for a change in Trenton has been a central plank of his campaign.
Sherrill, meanwhile, points to the president's tariffs and trade wars as the cause of voters' belt tightening. She regularly asks voters to elect her to stand up to Trump's policies, which she casts as out of touch in the Democratic-leaning state.
