Up

Mikie Sherrill

The Governor-elect showed courage in stepping up to run in a time of genuine peril. Consider these points: She erased Trump’s gains in 2024 with Black, Hispanic, and AAPI voters. She won Black voters by an 86-point margin, Latino voters by a 32-point margin, and Asian voters by a 64-point margin. Dominated among young voters, winning 18-29-year-olds by 2 to 1. Increased an already sizable margin among women further to nearly 60% vote share.

LeRoy Jones

The Democratic State Party Chairman proved durable throughout with his civilized and civilizing appeal to the voters of New Jersey – the perfect ally for Sherrill and manly Jersey counterpoint to the victimized and spoiled occupant of the White House.

LaMonica McIver

The Congresswoman from CD-11 proved the perfect complementary ally to Sherrill, demonstrating courage on the ground in her resistance to masked and armed ICE agents, and showing up when it counted in the South Ward in support of the Democratic candidate for governor. Said McIver, with time ticking down: "This election is life or death. You want to know what's on the ballot? You're on the ballot. So get out there and vote for Mikie Sherrill and Dale Caldwell. Right now, we have a democracy crisis. We have a candidate who's running [Republican nominee for Governor Jack Ciattarelli] who says Donald Trump is an A plus for him and doing a great job. No, that's incorrect. People are not getting their SNAP benefits."

Eddie Donnelly

From the beginning, the Prez of the NJ FMBA (Firefighters Mutual Benevolent Association) went all in with his organization's strong endorsement of Sherrill's campaign for governor. Not did Donnelly endorse, but he repeatedly doubled back to make real-time worker protection arguments for the Democratic nominee like this one and this one, where he recruited other men for the mission.

Teresa Ruiz

The state Senator from LD-29 – a longtime political organizer, married to Sammy Gonzalez, a North Ward GOTV diehard - ignited on behalf of her friend and political ally Mikie Sherrill. Keep in mind that Latino data point (cited above).

Craig Coughlin

The Speaker of the General Assembly built a super-majority last night on the strength of Democratic Party challengers opportunistically taking down Republican incumbents in LD8 and LD21.

HCDO

Home of the second highest plurality for Sherrill (after her home county of Essex), the Hudson County Democratic Organization went crazy on election night, demonstrating the potent combination of Chairman Craig Guy, GOTV animal Brian Stack, local elections in Jersey City and Hoboken, and Latino ICE outrage.

Akeem Cunningham

Mikie Sherrill gave Cunningham a shout-out from the stage in her victory speech, and in Essex County referred to “Team Akeem” synonymously with “Team Sherrill.” Heading up the Essex County coordinated campaign for Chairman Jones, Cunningham helped corral a monster Democratic Party plurality of 121,000 votes for Sherrill.

Chigozie Onyema and Katie Brennan

Respectively the Assembly people-elect in LD-28 and LD-31, the Newark-based and Jersey City-based Democrats arrive in Trenton with strong resumes and battle-tested convictions in difficult times.

Down

Tom Kean, Jr.

A lot of people and organizations had a tough night last night, those who went with Ciattarelli, among them the Vaad, FOP, and others, including Assembly Republicans. But the Congressman from CD-7 proved the night’s most obvious 2025 General Election loser. The Republican assembly people in his legislative district both lost. Republican towns in his district went down to Democrats. Jack Ciattarelli, who hails from Somerset, the centerpiece to Kean’s congressional district, lost his home county. It all adds up to one thing as this infernal government shutdown persists: trouble for Kean, a reclusive and press-evasive figure in a party stuck to Donald Trum, who nosedived last night in New Jersey. With time ticking down until the midterm elections and Trump’s job approval tanking, Kean won’t be able to hide at the President’s Golf Course anymore.

Donald Trump

Of course, the President blamed other people for the losses his party suffered last night. He wasn’t on the ballot, he says. That’s why Republicans lost. Great leadership there. No, dopey. They lost, Ciattarelli chief among them, by 13%, to Mikie Sherrill, because you’re up there - because you added insult to injury by saying - vindictively and self-centeredly - that you terminated the Gateway Tunnel, unleashed ICE masked agents into our towns, and froze SNAP benefits while having a Great Gatsby costume party.

Jack Ciattarelli

The Republican nominee for Governor ran a good campaign, made himself available, and never backed down from looking New Jersey eyeball to eyeball. But he had a wretched albatross around his neck the whole time. Without Trump in the White House, Ciattarelli would have probably walked into office.

MAGA

That deep red rally in Wildwood might have made diehards feel good at the time, but it just finally turned off independents and unaffiliated voters, and galvanized Mikie Sherrill supporters.

Nick Sacco

The Mayor of North Bergen tried to be relevant with an endorsement of Jack Ciattarelli. It went nowhere alongside the human cyclone of Brian Stack in Union City.

Republican Party in NJ

It’s in tatters. It’s made up of militant Trump Kool-Aid drinkers on the one hand, cozied up to one another in Fox News silos, horrified Clifford Case remnants on the other, and genuinely good people who need tax relief, with nowhere to find common ground as long as Trump sits in the (partly demolished) White House.

Polling

The polling for this race proved especially off course, especially Emerson and the supposed always-on-the-mark AtlasIntel. Those two polling institutions in the closing days had Sherrill versus Ciattarelli a "dead heat." The right-wing, New York media went along for the ride. In fact, Sherrill would win by double digits, an extraordinary outcome cited as a highly realistic goal in July by Dale Caldwell.