Mikie Sherrill will be sworn in as New Jersey’s next governor Tuesday, after a momentous win that made her one of the country’s most high-profile Democrats taking office this year.
Sherrill, a former four-term congressmember and mom of four from Montclair, trounced Republican nominee Jack Ciattarelli by 15 points in November, giving Democrats a third consecutive term in the governor’s office for the first time in more than 50 years. The former Navy helicopter pilot and federal prosecutor will also be the second female governor in New Jersey’s history.
Now comes the hard part: governing.
Sherrill campaigned on pledges of acting quickly to combat rising energy costs and other affordability challenges for residents. Her term begins as the Trump administration ramps up its crackdown on immigrant communities nationwide, including in New Jersey. Beyond that, she’ll have to propose her first state budget by the end of February.
As the 2026 midterms approach, Sherrill’s performance in her first months in office could have national implications. While her decisive victory over a MAGA opponent in the fall exposed electoral weaknesses of the Trump-led Republican Party, any stumbling out of the gate by Sherrill could be turned around on her and the Democrats.
“She’ll either be revered as a poster executive of the Democratic Party, or she’ll be used as a strawman opponent for Republicans across the country to say, ‘Look what they’ve elected and nothing has improved.’ So she has a pretty big, kind of dual-sided challenge ahead of her,” said Ashley Koning, director of the Eagleton Center for Public Interest Polling at Rutgers University.
The many ways New Jersey is unaffordable
While campaigning, Sherrill made her case to New Jerseyans that she was the right candidate to tackle their multipronged affordability problems. The state has become one of the most expensive places to buy a home in the country, and home ownership has grown out of reach for many middle-income families and individuals. Meanwhile, homeowners have faced steady property tax increases each year.
New Jersey households have also been reeling from multiple hikes to their electric bills recently, including a 20% uptick this past summer. That led to Sherrill’s signature campaign promise: a freeze on energy rates on Day 1 of her administration.
As a candidate, Sherrill was short on specifics on how such a freeze would work. Her immediate predecessor, Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy, at one point said he was perplexed about how her proposal would work.
Utility bills depend on a slew of factors, but the two big drivers are the price of power and the cost of delivery. A governor has no control over power prices, which, in New Jersey, are set by multistate grid operators. A governor can influence delivery prices, but if they block rate increases, utilities are likely to raise the specter of failing infrastructure and power outages – a politically and economically treacherous position.
On the eve of her governorship, Sherrill’s gameplan on energy rates remains a mystery.
“Is this just asking the state Legislature to write checks to cover the difference? Is this pressuring suppliers to bring down the prices?” said Dan Cassino, a government and politics professor at Fairleigh Dickinson University. “We don’t quite know yet.”
Sherrill vs. Trump
When she wasn’t talking about affordability during her campaign, Sherrill was talking about President Donald Trump — and not in a nice way.
She has kept up her fiery rhetoric about the president during her transition. She floated the idea of a federal tax strike for New Jersey on Jon Stewart’s podcast, calling it a “great idea” when the comedian brought it up. And at the ceremony announcing her pick for attorney general, she reiterated her willingness to sue the Trump administration over its policies.
“We will take the administration to court if needed to make sure that New Jersey is getting our tax dollars back to invest in our schools, food assistance programs, health care and the Gateway Tunnel, just to name a few,” Sherrill said, referring to the Hudson River megaproject.
After the killing of Renee Good by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Minneapolis this month, New Jersey lawmakers passed several bills aimed at limiting the state’s cooperation with ICE. Assuming Murphy signs the bills, Sherrill will inherit a set of new laws aimed at limiting ICE’s ability to operate in New Jersey, which were passed on the last day of the lame duck session.
Despite all the bad blood, political experts say Sherrill could moderate her tone toward Trump and pursue a more cordial relationship with Washington to avoid the president potentially threatening to withhold more federal funding from New Jersey.
“You have to play nice with the federal government a little bit if you want to keep the money going,” Cassino said. “We’ve already seen Donald Trump punishing Minnesota, saying we’re going to withhold welfare, we’re going to withhold food stamps, we’re going to withhold agricultural aid for farmers. Nobody wants that to happen in New Jersey.”
A state budget in peril
Sherrill will also have to address New Jersey’s budget deficit of more than $1.5 billion for the 2026 fiscal year. State lawmakers tacked on an additional $120 million in spending in the last days of the lame duck session. The state budget under Murphy grew from $37 billion in 2018 to almost $59 billion last year — a 60% increase during his eight years in office.
As governor, Sherrill will get the first crack at setting priorities for the new budget with her proposal. But under state law, she only has until the end of February to submit it to the Legislature for review.
“The question really we’re going to see answered pretty quickly is, will the new governor perpetuate these kinds of large increases in the size of the budget that we saw under Governor Murphy, or is she going to attempt to get spending under control?” said Micah Rasmussen, director of the Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics at Rider University.
“The budget proposal that she introduces, does it increase spending by several billion dollars, or does it try to hold the line on spending where we are?” Rasmussen added. “That will give us a good sense of where we’re headed for the next four years.”
