Sherrill pulls out all stops with Obama endorsement, star-studded New Jersey campaign push as race tightens

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Ciattarelli gaining ground on Sherrill in NJ governor's race

Fox News contributor Joe Concha reacts to the last poll numbers in New Jersey and a reported plot by Pennsylvania Democrats to oust Sen. Fetterman in 2028.

New Jersey Democratic gubernatorial candidate Rep. Mikie Sherrill is pulling out all the stops in the final push ahead of Election Day, campaigning alongside Democratic Govs. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan and Wes Moore of Maryland, both considered potential 2028 presidential candidates. 

While the Sherrill campaign gears up for high-profile campaign collaborations, former President Barack Obama endorsed Sherrill's gubernatorial campaign on Friday. 

"This November, we have an opportunity to chart a different path forward — to reject the chaos in Washington and lower costs in New Jersey — and I’m so grateful to have President Obama’s support and endorsement in this race," Sherrill said in a statement, commending Obama's leadership on healthcare amid the government shutdown as congressional Democrats seek to extend healthcare premiums set to expire this year. 

Sherrill will rally with Whitmer in Paramus, New Jersey, on Saturday morning. Later, she will join Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin for a "No Kings" rally in Montclair — one of hundreds scheduled across the country in rejection of President Donald Trump's sweeping, second-term agenda. 

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Democrat Mikie Sherrill participates in the final New Jersey gubernatorial debate with Republican Jack Ciattarelli in New Brunswick, New Jersey, on Oct. 8, 2025.  (Heather Khalifa/AP Photo)

On Sunday, Sherrill will host a policy roundtable with Moore and Newark Mayor Ras Baraka. Baraka was one of several Democratic candidates who competed for the New Jersey gubernatorial nomination earlier this year. 

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Baraka made national headlines during his campaign when he was arrested for trespassing at Delaney Hall, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement holding facility in Newark, while protesting earlier this year. He was later accused of fostering toxic work environments for women.

After the policy roundtable on Sunday, Sherrill and Moore will canvass in Newark before she attends an Oktoberfest event in Hamilton later that day. 

A Fox News survey released Thursday found Sherill ahead of her Republican opponent Jack Ciattarelli by 5 points among New Jersey likely voters (50-45%), down from an 8-point lead in late September (50-42%). As the race to replace Gov. Phil Murphy, who is term-limited in the Garden State this year, Sherrill's edge has tightened over Ciattarelli, within the poll’s margin of sampling error.

Republican gubernatorial candidate in Ohio Vivek Ramaswamy headlines a campaign event for New Jersey GOP nominee for governor Jack Ciattarelli, on Oct. 15, 2025, in Saddle Brook, New Jersey. (Fox News Digital/Paul Steinhauser)

New Jersey is one of two statewide elections in the U.S. this year and will be considered a bellwether ahead of competitive midterm elections expected next year. 

The race for the Garden State's highest office has become increasingly hostile between Sherrill and Ciattarelli in the final weeks ahead of Election Day. And while Trump isn't on the ballot, he's loomed large over the New Jersey gubernatorial election.

At last week'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."

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."

Republican Jack Ciattarelli, left, looks on while Democrat Rep. Mikie Sherrill speaks during the final debate in the New Jersey governor's race, on Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2025, in New Brunswick, New Jersey.  (Heather Khalifa/AP)

"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.

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 ten elections.

And Trump made major gains in New Jersey in last year's presidential election, losing the state by only 6 percentage points, an improvement over his 16-point deficit four years earlier.

This week, multiple sources confirmed to Fox News that Trump will hold tele-rallies with Ciattarelli. 

In what’s expected to be a low-turnout election, Trump’s backing could prove crucial for Ciattarelli, who’s making his third run for governor after narrowly losing to Murphy four years ago.

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The race in New Jersey was rocked a couple of weeks ago by a report that the National Personnel Records Center, which is a branch of the National Archives and Records Administration, had mistakenly released Sherrill's improperly redacted military personnel files, which included private information like her Social Security number, to a Ciattarelli ally. 

But Sherrill's military records indicated that the United States Naval Academy had blocked her from taking part in her 1994 graduation amid a cheating scandal.

The showdown was jolted again last week after Sherrill's allegations that Ciattarelli was "complicit" with pharmaceutical companies in the opioid deaths of tens of thousands of New Jerseyans, as she pointed to the medical publishing company he owned that pushed content promoting the use of opioids as a low-risk treatment for chronic pain.

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This week, Trump set off a political hand grenade in the race, as he "terminated" billions of federal dollars for the Gateway Project, which is funding a new train tunnel under the Hudson River connecting New Jersey and New York.

Sherrill, holding a news conference Thursday at a major commuter rail station just a few miles from the site of the tunnels in one of the busiest train corridors in the nation, called the project "critical" as she took aim at Trump and Ciattarelli.

"I'm fighting for the people of New Jersey. He's fighting to excuse Trump. It's unacceptable," Sherrill charged.

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New Jersey traditionally elects a governor from the party out of power in the White House, which this year favors the Democrats.

But Garden State voters haven't elected a governor from the same party in three straight elections in over a half century, which would favor the Republicans.

One of those political trends will be busted in next month's election.