That didn’t take long.

On Friday morning, a rather uninspiring jobs report came out. Only 73,000 jobs were created in July.

Later, the Dow Jones average dipped more than 500 points.

By Friday afternoon, Mikie Sherrill was pointing fingers at her opponent, Jack Ciattarelli.

She called Donald Trump’s tariffs a tax hike and said Ciattarelli was just going along. Or to be more precise:

"Donald Trump’s tariffs are a tax hike, plain and simple. They are raising prices on businesses, costing the average family $2,400 each year, and putting New Jerseyans out of work - and Jack is going right along with him. I hear from New Jerseyans about how the rising costs of housing, utilities, and healthcare are keeping people up at night. I’m running for governor to make sure families can afford to live here, while Jack's running to serve Donald Trump, even if that means causing New Jerseyans, in his own words, ‘short-term pain.’ That ‘pain’ is here now, New Jersey has lost 12,000 jobs in just the last two months because of these tariffs."

Sherrill's release includes a clip of Ciattarelli talking about "short term pain," and also saying that Trump is doing what he said he would do regarding tariffs.
A few points here.

Sherrill wants to lump Ciattarelli with Trump, so it's no surprise she jumped on Friday's economic news.

A more substantive point is whether Ciattarelli as a candidate - and perhaps as governor - will challenge the president if his policies look like they may hurt New Jersey. Trump endorsed Ciattarelli for governor, essentially ending the June primary.

Another observation is that two can play the same game.

Expect Team Jack to fire away at Sherrill when the news puts Democrats - either in New Jersey or the nation - in a bad position.