Cliff-hanger: Ciattarelli, Sherrill claim upper hand in crucial New Jersey showdown for governor

BELLEVILLE, N.J. – As the competitive and combustible race for New Jersey governor barrels towards a possible photo finish, both major party nominees are playing up the positives.

“Our polling’s looking good. I think we’re feeling really good right now,” Democratic nominee Rep. Mikie Sherrill touted as she spoke with Fox News Digital after headlining a major party gathering this week in this northern New Jersey township.

But with a week and a half to go until Election Day, the latest public opinion polls in one of only two races for governor in the nation this year suggest that Republican nominee Jack Ciattarelli is narrowing the gap with Sherrill in one of only two races for governor this year across the country.

“I think we’re in a great position,” Ciattarelli said in a Fox News interview after a diner stop in Linden, N.J. 

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In a state where registered Democrats still outnumber Republicans despite a GOP surge in registration this decade, four public opinion polls released over the past two weeks — from Fox News, Quinnipiac University, Fairleigh Dickinson University and Rutgers-Eagleton — indicated Ciattarelli tightening the margins with Sherrill in the race to succeed the term-limited Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy. Other public and internal surveys suggest a margin of error contest.

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“As you know, many of these polls have a dead heat. And that’s in a state in which Republicans typically under poll because we are the minority party,” Ciattarelli said. “And when you have the endorsement of Democratic mayors across the state, it says people want change. That’s exactly what we’re going to deliver when we win this race.”

Ciattarelli, who has crisscrossed the campaign trail in the Garden State this summer and autumn, has drawn energetic crowds at his stops during the closing stretch of the campaign. And with early voting about to get underway, he’s urging his supporters to cast their ballots.

“Early voting starts this Saturday. We turn out, we win. Let’s finish strong,” he urged.

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President Donald Trump will hold a tele-rally with Ciattarelli ahead of Election Day. And also helping him make sure low propensity Trump supporters vote during an off-election year when the president isn’t on the ballot have been some top MAGA stars, including Ohio gubernatorial candidate and former White House contender Vivek Ramaswamy and Rep. Byron Donalds, the top candidate for Florida governor next year.

“Jack’s been running a great campaign. I’ve been watching it from down in the Sunshine State. But it’s about winning. We got to help everybody get across the line,” Donalds told Fox News.

Former Rahway, N.J. GOP chair Patrick Cassio, who was at the Ciattarelli-Donalds diner stop in Linden, told Fox News that “a lot of Trump voters do not vote for anybody else, so getting guys out that they like will get them out to vote.”

And he noted that “four years ago, 400,000 Republicans didn’t vote. So, think about that. He [Ciattarelli] picks up half of that, he wins. The math is pretty simple.”

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Ciattarelli, who’s making his third straight run for Garden State governor, and who nearly upset Murphy four years ago, says things are different this time around.

“Because of the closeness of that race in ’21, people are paying closer attention this time around,” Ciattarelli said.

But Sherrill criticized her Republican rival as a “kind of a perennial candidate.”

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Sherrill, a U.S. Naval Academy graduate who flew helicopters during her military service and who was first elected to Congress in 2018, is also enjoying plenty of company on the campaign trail. Last weekend she was joined by Govs. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan and Wes Moore of Maryland — who are considered potential 2028 White House contenders. And former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, two more potential presidential candidates, are on deck.

And Sherrill’s campaign announced this week that the most popular Democrat in the country — former President Barack Obama — will headline a rally with her in Newark on Nov. 1, the final weekend before Election Day.

While Sherrill has faced criticism by Republicans and some political pundits for a lack of energy on the campaign trail, she pointed to her get-out-the-vote operation.

“We’re seeing great returns on the vote by mails. We’ll start early voting the 25th, which we’re really excited about. We’re seeing a ton of energy on the ground,” she told Fox News.

And Sherrill touted that her campaign has “the biggest volunteer field program that anyone in New Jersey has ever run… We are getting the right doors, and I’m really excited about what we’re gonna see.”