NEWARK, New Jersey — Kitchen-table issues are at the center of the New Jersey gubernatorial election, as former state Reps. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ) and Jack Ciattarelli (R-NJ) each argue that they have what it takes to address voters’ economic concerns in the most competitive bellwether contest of 2025.
New polling released ahead of next Tuesday’s election shows that this truly is anyone’s race. Sherrill and Ciattarelli must spend the remaining days of their campaigns convincing voters that they can help make life more affordable from the governor’s mansion, as New Jersey residents told the Washington Examiner that the cost of living, particularly energy prices and taxes, was top of mind heading to the polls.
1. Energy prices
The rising cost of energy emerged as a prominent concern early in the general election. Sherrill and Ciattarelli have stuck to party lines, with Democrats blaming the Trump administration’s policies and Republicans criticizing incumbent Gov. Phil Murphy (D-NJ).
Josh Freed, senior vice president on energy and climate at Third Way, a centrist think tank, told the Washington Examiner that electricity prices have not typically been a “major concern” for voters, as they haven’t risen dramatically in a very long time.
But in New Jersey, the rising costs have dominated debates and ad campaigns from both parties. New Jersey’s electricity rates climbed 22% this summer from the year prior, faster than every state except Maine.
Freed said the sticker shock is coming at a time when voters are making it “very clear” to their elected officials that they are stressed economically.
“That was, as widely reported, a huge factor in why people voted for Trump, why Trump came closer in New Jersey in 2024 than he did four years prior,” Freed said. “And a year later, if anything, prices have gone up, and he promised to cut energy prices in half.”
“And this isn’t a partisan issue,” he added. “It’s just that voters are seeing that politicians are still not responding to energy prices, and so they’re frustrated by it. They’re looking for people who will say, ‘I really honestly hear and see and understand your frustrations, and I’m going to do something about it.’”
Sherrill has pledged to “massively expand” cheaper and cleaner power generation, with a proposed plan to use a state of emergency declaration to freeze electricity costs for at least a year.
She has frequently linked cost-of-living concerns to President Donald Trump’s tariffs on imported goods and his decision to reverse many of the Biden-era clean and renewable energy policies.
She’s also blamed utility companies for making billions yet “dumping the costs onto the ratepayer here in New Jersey.”
Ciattarelli placed the blame on Murphy for turning New Jersey into a net importer of electricity. During his first term, beginning seven years ago, New Jersey was a net exporter due to the state’s significant natural gas and nuclear power plants. However, high demand and the closure of several plants turned the state’s energy production on its head.
“Anybody who’s from New Jersey would know that the Jersey Shore is sacrosanct, here at the state, nobody wants wind farms off our Jersey Shore,” Ciattarelli said during a debate in September, a knock at Sherrill’s support of offshore windmills.
His plan is to reopen and repurpose existing plants, accelerate the use of solar energy on rooftops and warehouses, and expand the use of solar energy. He also proposed that the state should leave the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, calling it a “failure.”
2. Tariffs
Trump’s tariff policies are also a top concern for New Jersey voters.
A poll from Morning Consult last week found that a strong majority of voters expect the administration’s sweeping tariffs to raise prices, slow job growth, and produce a more difficult environment for small businesses.
The survey found that 89% of New Jersey voters are concerned about inflation, with the most affected categories being household spending and the costs of goods. Sixty-three percent of voters say the worst is yet to come, per the poll.
Sherrill has tied the tariff policies to Ciattarelli, who has pledged to stand behind the president.
“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,’” Sherrill said in a statement via Insider NJ. “That ‘pain’ is here now. New Jersey has lost 12,000 jobs in just the last two months because of these tariffs.”
According to the outlet, Ciattarelli has stated that Trump is attempting to “hit the reset button” to improve the United States’ economy.
Regarding tariffs, the Republican has said that “you can’t expect people to understand the implications of that because it does get very, very complicated. … But, you know, tip our cap to the president,” per the outlet.
3. Property taxes
Taxes are frequently a top issue in an election year, and New Jersey’s gubernatorial election is no different, particularly as New Jersey ranks among the most expensive states for both property and business taxes.
Ciattarelli and Sherrill have both spent considerable funds campaigning on tax reform.
The Republican has proposed capping property taxes at a percentage of a home’s assessed value and reducing the state’s Corporate Business Tax by 1% per year for five years. He also wants to ban taxes on new home improvements and make student-loan interest tax-deductible to ease economic pressure on college graduates.
Ciattarelli has rebutted claims that he wants to raise the sales tax, even sending Sherrill’s campaign a cease and desist letter to stop her from saying he is pushing for a 10% sales tax on food and clothes. He has said all options are on the table to make New Jersey affordable and competitive again, but he said “that doesn’t mean I’m putting in a 10% sales tax,” a nod to a similar proposal in Tennessee he referred to in June.
Sherrill has said she wants to ease property tax pressure by expanding rebates and credits, such as the Child Tax Credit, the Earned Income Tax Credit, and the Caregiver Tax Credit.
4. Personal scandals
Henry de Koninck, a political consultant, told the Washington Examiner he doesn’t think either campaign is having significant success in “punching through” with kitchen-table messaging.
He thinks that, while the candidates will spend a lot of time talking about taxes and affordability, the race will come down to the participation of each party’s voters and the favorability of the candidate.
“In the last few years, the electorate more and more kind of locked in in terms of party preference,” de Koninck said. “So the idea of flipping a lot of voters on an issue where that person might typically vote for one party or another has become increasingly an uphill challenge.”
He said the race will likely be determined along the lines of “personal biography and narrative.”
“Congresswoman Sherrill has built her political career and her reputation on her biography,” he said. “That is something that Jack Ciattarelli has attempted to, with some measure of success, chip away with.”
De Koninck’s comments refer to Sherrill’s entire military record being released in full to a Ciattarelli ally, with no redactions to protect her personal information, including her Social Security number.
The release came after a New Jersey Globe report on a 1994 cheating scandal at the Naval Academy, where Sherrill attended. She is not accused of cheating, but said she was not allowed to walk at graduation because she failed to report her classmates involved in the scandal, a fact that Republicans have latched on to.
“They’ve put a good deal of money behind that and earned media behind that,” the strategist said. “If they’re able to successfully chip away at the foundation of her political biography, then they may have some success there.”
But, he noted, if the Sherrill campaign has been able to “drive home” her personal experience to the voters, and they “still have confidence in it, then it should be a good night for the Sherrill campaign.”
Ciattarelli is facing a controversy of his own for a former medical publishing company that he owned. During the October debate, Sherrill claimed the company’s “propaganda” and “misinformation” contributed to thousands of opioid-related deaths and that Ciattarelli “profited” from those deaths.
The Republican had initiated plans to file a defamation lawsuit against Sherrill for her comments, saying she “crossed a line and sunk to dangerous levels of unhinged rhetoric.” But it was stalled as the state’s Election Law Enforcement Commission reviewed and offered an advisory opinion. The board unanimously voted to give Ciattarelli the go-ahead on Monday.
Ciattarelli told reporters in Bridgewater on Friday that there’s only a handful of days until the election when asked if he plans to file the lawsuit.
“We’re just gonna focus on winning the race, but I’ll file that very soon thereafter,” the Republican candidate said.
Sherrill’s campaign has called the lawsuit “desperate.”
Freed said Sherrill may have the advantage over Ciattarelli when it comes to swaying voters on kitchen table issues, because she is offering statewide solutions and has largely distanced herself from the Democratic Party, which is struggling with its national image in the wake of the 2024 election.
Ciattarelli, however, is taking a “gamble” by having a campaign that is “linking itself to national themes and policies.” Since the start of the campaign, the Republican has positioned himself as a Trump administration ally who will implement the GOP’s national agenda, an attempt to gain votes from Trump-only voters in an off-year election where the party in power historically has poor turnout.
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“I think it could [negatively impact Ciattarelli] because when you look at what Trump is doing to New Jersey, in terms of limiting the options that New Jersey has for power, in terms of canceling the Hudson Rail Tunnel [Project], he’s not taking stands that are in the best interest of New Jersey,” Freed said.
“So what voters tend to look for is someone who is going to represent them,” he added. “And especially in governor’s races, they’re going to be looking at someone who’s going to be anchored in what’s going on in the state.”
