New Jersey governor race tightens with 2 weeks till election day

With two weeks till Election Day, and the newest polls pointing to a possible photograph end within the battle for New Jersey governor, the 2 main social gathering nominees are urging their supporters to get out and vote.

“After we vote, we win,” Democratic nominee Rep. Mikie Sherrill mentioned this previous weekend at a rally.

And her Republican rival, Jack Ciattarelli, advised his supporters that “championship groups end sturdy… let’s win this race.”

New Jersey is only one of two states, together with Virginia, that maintain statewide elections for governor this November. And the contests, which historically seize outsized nationwide consideration, are considered as essential early exams of President Donald Trump’s unprecedented and relentless second-term agenda, in addition to key barometers forward of subsequent 12 months’s midterm showdowns for the U.S. Home and Senate.

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Additionally within the political highlight this November is New York Metropolis’s high-profile mayoral election, the poll field proposition over congressional redistricting in California, and three state Supreme Courtroom contests in battleground Pennsylvania.

Democrats, who’re aiming to exit the political wilderness following final 12 months’s election setbacks after they misplaced management of the White Home and Senate and did not win again the Home majority, are highlighting their success thus far this 12 months in particular elections.

“There’s wind at our again,” Democratic Nationwide Committee (DNC) Chair Ken Martin not too long ago touted. “Now we have overperformed in each single election that is been on the poll since Donald Trump was inaugurated.”

ONE OF THE TOP 2025 RACES MAY END UP IN A PHOTO FINISH

However Republicans level to the multitude of issues going through the Democratic Social gathering.

“Sadly for the DNC, the reality is that Democrats’ approval score is at a 30-year low because the social gathering has hemorrhaged greater than 2 million voters over the previous 4 years,” Republican Nationwide Committee communications director Zach Parkinson advised Fox Information Digital not too long ago.

Here is a more in-depth take a look at 2025’s prime elections.

New Jersey

Ciattarelli, who’s making his third straight run for Backyard State governor and who almost upset Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy 4 years in the past, has good purpose to be optimistic he can pull off victory in blue-leaning New Jersey.

In a state the place registered Democrats nonetheless outnumber Republicans regardless of a GOP surge in registration this decade, three public opinion polls launched final week — from Fox Information, Quinnipiac College and Fairleigh Dickinson College — indicated Ciattarelli narrowing the hole with Democratic gubernatorial nominee Rep. Mikie Sherrill within the race to succeed the term-limited Murphy.

Jack Ciattarelli, the Republican nominee for governor in New Jersey, speaks to a raucous crowd of supporters at a diner in Saddle Brook, N.J., on Oct. 15, 2025. (Paul Steinhauser/Fox Information)

The Fox Information ballot, performed Oct. 10 – 14, put Sherrill at 50% assist amongst possible voters, with Ciattarelli at 45%. Sherrill’s 5-point benefit was down from an 8-point lead in Fox Information’ September survey in New Jersey.

Whereas Democrats have lengthy dominated federal and state legislative elections in blue-leaning New Jersey, Republicans are very aggressive in gubernatorial contests, profitable 5 out of the previous 10 elections.

And Trump made main beneficial properties in New Jersey in final 12 months’s presidential election, dropping the state by solely six proportion factors, a significant enchancment over his 16-point deficit 4 years earlier.

THE POLITICAL BOMB TRUMP EXPLODED IN THE NEW JERSEY SHOWDOWN FOR GOVERNOR

A number of sources confirmed to Fox Information that Trump will maintain a tele-rally with Ciattarelli forward of Election Day. Trump’s teaming up with Ciattarelli might assist energize MAGA supporters, a lot of whom are low propensity voters who usually skip casting ballots in non-presidential election years.

The race in New Jersey was rocked a few weeks in the past by a report that the Nationwide Personnel Data Middle, which is a department of the Nationwide Archives and Data Administration, mistakenly launched Sherrill’s improperly redacted navy personnel recordsdata, which included non-public data like her Social Safety quantity, to a Ciattarelli ally. 

Rep. Mikell Sherrill of New Jersey, the Democratic gubernatorial nominee, speaks at a information convention on Oct. 13, 2025, in Clifton, N.J. (Mikie Sherrill marketing campaign)

However Sherrill’s navy data indicated that america Naval Academy blocked her from collaborating in her 1994 commencement amid a dishonest scandal.

Sherrill, who was by no means accused of dishonest within the scandal, went on to serve almost a decade within the Navy, flying helicopters.

The showdown was jolted once more two weeks in the past after Sherrill’s allegations that Ciattarelli was “complicit” with pharmaceutical firms within the opioid deaths of tens of hundreds of New Jerseyans, as she pointed to the medical publishing firm he owned that pushed content material selling using opioids as a low-risk therapy for power ache.

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Final week, Trump set off a political hand grenade within the race, as he “terminated” billions of federal {dollars} for the Gateway Venture, which is funding a brand new prepare tunnel below the Hudson River connecting New Jersey and New York.

Sherrill, holding a information convention Thursday at a significant commuter rail station just some miles from the positioning of the tunnels in one of many busiest prepare corridors within the nation, referred to as the undertaking “important” as she took goal at Trump and Ciattarelli.

Virginia

Explosive revelations in Virginia’s legal professional basic race that the GOP is aiming to leverage up and down the poll not too long ago shook up the race for governor, forcing Democratic Social gathering nominee, former Rep. Abigail Spanberger, again on protection in a race the place most polls indicated her having fun with a large lead over Republican rival Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears.

The 2 main social gathering gubernatorial nominees in Virginia: Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, left, and Democrat former Rep. Abigail Spanberger. (Getty Pictures)

Virginia legal professional basic Democratic nominee Jay Jones has been in disaster mode since his controversial texts have been first reported a few weeks in the past by the Nationwide Evaluation.

Jones acknowledged and apologized for texts he despatched in 2022, when he in contrast then-Virginia Home Speaker Todd Gilbert to mass murderers Adolf Hitler and Pol Pot, including that if he was given two bullets, he would use each in opposition to the GOP lawmaker to shoot him within the head.

However he is going through a refrain of calls from Republicans to drop out of the race. 

Earle-Sears hasn’t wasted a chance to hyperlink Spanberger to Jones.

And through this month’s chaotic and solely gubernatorial debate, the place Earle-Sears repeatedly interrupted Spanberger, the GOP gubernatorial nominee referred to as on her Democratic rival to inform Jones to finish his legal professional basic bid.

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“The feedback that Jay Jones made are completely abhorrent,” Spanberger mentioned on the debate. However she neither affirmed nor pulled again her assist of Jones.

Earle-Sears has saved up the stress.

“Abigail Spanberger ought to have been the primary to name for Jay Jones to step down. As a substitute, she doubled down—as a result of deep down, she’s OK with what he mentioned,” Earle-Sears argued not too long ago in a social media put up.

New York Metropolis

The mayoral election within the nation’s most populous metropolis all the time grabs outsized consideration, particularly this 12 months as New York Metropolis might elect its first Muslim and first millennial mayor.

Democratic socialist 33-year-old state lawmaker Zohran Mamdani’s victory in June’s Democratic Social gathering mayoral main despatched political shock waves throughout the nation. And he is come below assault from Republicans and from his rivals on the poll over his far-left proposals.

From left, unbiased mayoral candidate former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa and Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani take part in a mayoral debate, on Thursday, Oct. 16, 2025, in New York.  (Angelina Katsanis/Pool-AP Picture)

Mamdani is the clear polling and fundraising frontrunner within the closely blue metropolis as he faces off in opposition to former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who got here in a distant second within the main and is now working as an unbiased candidate. Cuomo is aiming for a political comeback after resigning as governor 4 years in the past amid a number of scandals.

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Additionally working is two-time Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa, a co-founder of the Guardian Angels, the non-profit, a volunteer-based group security group.

Embattled Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat who was working for re-election as an unbiased, dropped out of the race final month, however his title stays on the poll.

California

Voters in closely blue California will vote in November on whether or not to put aside their fashionable nonpartisan redistricting fee for the remainder of the last decade and permit the Democrat-dominated legislature to find out congressional redistricting for the subsequent three election cycles.

The vote would be the end result of an effort by Gov. Gavin Newsom and California Democrats to create as much as 5 left-leaning congressional seats within the Golden State to counter the brand new maps that conservative Gov. Greg Abbott signed into regulation final week, which can create as much as 5 extra right-leaning U.S. Home districts within the crimson state of Texas.

Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom of California speaks throughout a congressional redistricting occasion, on Thursday, Aug. 14, 2025, in Los Angeles.  (Mario Tama/Getty Pictures)

The redistricting in Texas, which got here after Trump’s urging, is a part of a broader effort by the GOP throughout the nation to pad their razor-thin Home majority to maintain management of the chamber within the 2026 midterms, when the social gathering in energy historically faces political headwinds and loses seats.

Polls recommend majority assist for passage of what is generally known as Proposition 50.

Pennsylvania

Democrats presently maintain a 5-2 majority on the Supreme Courtroom within the northeastern battleground of Pennsylvania.

However three Democrat-leaning justices on the state Supreme Courtroom, following the completion of their 10-year phrases, are working this 12 months to maintain their seats in “Sure” or “No” retention elections.

The election may upend the court docket’s composition for the subsequent decade, closely affect whether or not Democrats or Republicans have a bonus within the state’s congressional delegation and legislature, and affect essential instances together with voting rights and reproductive rights.

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Whereas state Supreme Courtroom elections sometimes do not seize a lot nationwide consideration, contests the place the steadiness of a court docket in a key battleground state is up for grabs have attracted tons of outdoor cash.

The state Supreme Courtroom showdown this spring in Wisconsin, the place the 4-3 liberal majority was maintained, drew almost $100 million in exterior cash as each events poured sources into the election.