NEWARK, N.J. — As Democratic Rep. Mikie Sherrill stood in the middle of the street in Newark’s West Ward on Sunday afternoon, she made it clear that voters there could be decisive in this year’s race for governor.
“New Jersey is a blue state. And so all we have to do is get everybody to the polls, because when we vote, we win,” the four-term congresswoman told her supporters as they prepared to knock on doors in her race against Republican Jack Ciattarelli.
Sherrill repeated, “When we vote…”
This time the crowd finished her sentence. “We win!”
Sherrill’s message underscored how her path to victory in November relies on turning out the Democratic Party’s core supporters, including in the West Ward, a predominantly Black community in the state’s largest city.
But concerns about Black voter support and engagement have lingered among Democrats in New Jersey and nationally following President Donald Trump’s 2024 victory. Trump lost the Garden State but made significant gains compared to his 2016 and 2020 results, particularly among voters of color in the state’s urban areas.
Democrats are broadly confident that the state’s Black voters will head to the polls in strong numbers in less than two weeks, in part to rebuke Trump’s policies. But some acknowledge that there are voters who need some convincing.
One of those voters is JP Sloan, a 38-year-old Newark resident who came to Sunday’s canvass kickoff to hear Sherrill speak. A self-described progressive who backed the Green Party in last year’s presidential race due to concerns about the Israel-Hamas war, Sloan said he is concerned about Sherrill’s stance on military intervention, given Sherrill is a former Navy helicopter pilot.
He’s torn between voting for Sherrill or not voting in the governor’s race at all.
“I understand the urgency of the situation,” Sloan said, noting that Republican governors have supported Trump’s policies. “But ultimately, I want to vote with my conscience and be true to my values.”
Jackie McCoy, a retiree who lives a block away from where Sherrill spoke in the West Ward, initially couched her support for Sherrill, saying she would “probably” vote for the congresswoman.
“I want to see what she has to say other than that she’s a Navy veteran and a pilot and a mom of four,” said McCoy, a staunch Democrat who noted she would never support Ciattarelli.
Asked if she might ultimately not vote in the governor’s race, McCoy then said she would back Sherrill.
“I would never leave it blank,” McCoy said. “My people have fought too hard to be able to vote. We would never not vote.”
Lingering concerns
Lorie Williams, who is leading canvassing efforts in the West Ward for the Essex County Democratic Committee, said that as she talks to voters in the area, “some people are excited and some people are on the fence” about supporting Sherrill.
“What happens is they, like, ‘I don’t know her,’ right? That’s it, like, ‘I don’t know her,’” Williams said.
“So then I give them a spiel of what I know about her and why they should vote for her, because right now, we have to keep moving New Jersey forward,” Williams said. “We can’t go backwards.”
Williams is confident their on-the-ground efforts are working, and said voters often say, “Listen, if you’re at my door and I trust you, I’m gonna go with you.”
“The Black voters are coming out,” Williams said.
Rep. Herb Conaway, D-N.J., said he has heard concerns about Black voter turnout, particularly following Trump’s performance last year. Trump lost New Jersey by 6 points, but improved on his 2020 margin by 10 points, the second-largest swing toward Trump in the country.
“We came off an election in 2024 where we saw some softening of the support among African Americans and Hispanic Americans, particularly males, for our national candidates,” Conaway told NBC News after he kicked off a door-knocking effort in Medford on Saturday. “And so it’s certainly going to be a concern now. But we are, as a party, driving into all of the areas where there’s soft support.”
Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, who lost to Sherrill in the Democratic gubernatorial primary and endorsed her in September, said concerns about Black voter turnout are “real.”
“People have not been speaking to Black voters, to Latino voters, right, to working-class voters in general,” Baraka said after a Sunday morning roundtable with Sherrill and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore. He noted the Democratic Party is recognizing this is a problem, and he said he has seen Sherrill’s campaign ramp up its organizing and outreach to Black communities in recent weeks.
T. Missy Balmir, a veteran New Jersey Democratic strategist and senior adviser for the Sherrill campaign, said concerns about Black voter engagement after the June primary have subsided as the campaign has stepped up its efforts. Balmir also attributed Trump’s gains in urban areas to a broader frustration with the political system, which prompted some voters to stay home. Still, she is confident there will be strong support for Sherrill in November.
“As a community, you can be frustrated with the political system in general, but still also understand what’s at stake in New Jersey if you have 100% MAGA Republican governor, right?” Balmir said. “So knowing that, we are, very much so, seeing that voters are ready and willing to vote for Mikie Sherrill.”
New Jersey Democratic Party Chairman LeRoy Jones, who also attended the Sunday roundtable in Newark, acknowledged his recent comments that the Democratic Party has to “do better” in its messaging to Black voters.
But Jones said the party is already achieving that in the New Jersey governor’s race with the help of the polarizing president.
“You’re always going to be concerned about turnout and how you generate turnout. And as I said, Donald Trump has become the best unifier for our turnout models all across the state, with all of our base constituencies,” Jones said.
Trump was a factor for Erica Williams, a social worker and Maplewood resident who attended the Newark canvassing event. She said she is backing Sherrill “because I’m a Democrat” and she supports Sherrill’s policies.
“And,” Williams added, “we really need someone to go up against Trump right now.”
Pushing back against Trump is also a top issue for Sloan, the undecided voter. He is particularly concerned that Newark is on Trump’s “hit list” and that Trump could send federal troops to the city.
Baraka addressed that concern as he made his pitch for Sherrill on Sunday afternoon, telling the crowd gathered in the middle of Newark neighborhood, “We just don’t want her to be the governor. We need her to be the governor.”
“We need to make sure we have a governor that when the president says he wants to send in the National Guard, she stands with us,” Baraka said. “When they say they want to cut Medicaid, you know she’s going to stand with us. When they say they want to cut funding from our schools, you know she stands with us.”
Voter outreach
Republicans do see an opportunity to capitalize on Trump’s gains in New Jersey. Ciattarelli, a former state legislator who lost a close race for governor four years ago, was asked at a town hall in Elizabeth last week how he can pull off a win this year. And he pointed to Trump’s improved margins among Black and Latino voters.
“I think a great many minority communities are waking up to the fact that the Democratic Party takes them for granted,” Ciattarelli said, noting he has campaigned in Black and Latino areas.
Ciattarelli told reporters after the event that Trump appealed to Black and Latino voters because “people want economic opportunity. They want good public schools. They want safe communities. And they’ve had it with the failures of the Democratic Party, particularly here in New Jersey.”
Sherrill pushed back on Ciattarelli’s comments, telling reporters after a Sunday roundtable in Newark that she was in the area “to show how important all of our communities are, and certainly communities like our Black community here in Newark, which has been historically under-invested in.”
Sherrill said she wanted to highlight work to invest in neighborhoods and “ensure that we are taking no one for granted, and we’re leaving no one behind.”
Sherrill’s running mate, Dr. Dale Caldwell, a Black pastor, added, “We’ve been all over the state in the Black community. That’s been a very strong focus of us.”
Sherrill also pointed to Ciattarelli recently dismissing a reporter who asked about the importance of Black and Hispanic voters by saying, “Next question.” Ciattarelli defended his response by noting his press conference was focused on an unrelated topic.
Still, Sherrill made a reference to the moment with her supporters in Newark.
“When Jack Ciattarelli was asked, do Black communities have a seat at the table? Do Latino communities have a seat at the table? Does anybody remember what he said?” Sherrill asked, and some in the crowd shouted, “Next question!”
In addition to her weekend event in Newark with Moore, Maryland’s first Black governor and the third Black governor elected in the country’s history, Sherrill has been campaigning throughout New Jersey in Black communities and meeting with Black leaders. She has visited Black churches, spoken at the the NAACP state convention, and launched get-out-the-vote efforts and met with Black small business owners in Atlantic City, among other events.
Sherrill also recently earned endorsements from Black Men Vote PAC and from nearly 150 Black faith leaders. And former President Barack Obama is set to headline a rally for Sherrill in Newark on Nov. 1.
Balmir, the Sherrill campaign adviser, said prominent leaders like Obama and Moore can help bring excitement and attention to the race.
“Having these surrogates come in is a reminder that everyone recognizes what’s at stake, and the importance of us ensuring that we don’t have a 100% MAGA governor in New Jersey,” Balmir said.
