The sharp divisions between New Jersey’s gubernatorial candidates in Wednesday night’s second debate were crystallized by the ratings each gave to President Donald Trump.
Republican nominee Jack Ciattarelli said Trump deserved an A. U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill, the Democratic nominee, gave him an F.
Ciattarelli and Sherrill had a more contentious meeting than their first debate, which focused as much on Trump and his personal controversies as it did on local concerns about affordability. These heated attacks foreshadowed a controversial month of campaigning before the November 4 elections.
Here are highlights from Wednesday night’s debate.
Throughout the evening, Ciattarelli took numerous opportunities to praise the administration’s policies, touting the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” tax reforms and saying he supported Trump’s immigration crackdown. He argued that it would help New Jersey to have a governor who gets along well with the president.
Trump improved his margin of defeat in New Jersey by 10 points between his 2020 and 2024 White House campaigns, losing last year by just 6 points.
Ciattarelli sometimes looked to thread the needle. When asked if he was part of Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement, Ciattarelli demurred.
“I’m part of a New Jersey movement,” he replied. “We need change in New Jersey. We face various crises raging in this state that are punishing the middle class.”
Sherrill, meanwhile, accused her opponent of being “100% MAGA” and said, “He has shown no signs of standing up to this president.” »
“You see, across the board, costs are increasing for New Jerseyans,” she said, citing Trump’s aggressive tariffs.
Sherrill, who often cites her military service during her campaign, defended her service record and explained why she did not attend her graduation ceremony in the 1990s. This comes as the National Archives admitted to wrongly disclosing her unredacted military record, including her Social Security number, to a person who filed a Freedom of Information Act request.
“Look, I didn’t rat on some of my classmates, so I didn’t walk at graduation,” Sherrill said, referring to a cheating scandal that occurred during his time there. She blamed Ciattarelli’s campaign for releasing the documents, linking the episode to what she called an abuse of power by the Trump administration.
Ciattarelli fought back, placing blame on the National Archives and demanding that Sherrill release more documents about what happened.
“I think the people of New Jersey deserve an answer as to why she was punished at the Naval Academy, and she’s trying to create a giant smokescreen for something that the National Archives has taken full responsibility for and apologized for,” Ciattarelli said, calling the records request “perfectly legal.”
A barbed and personal round trip
Responding to a question about job creation in the state, Sherrill attacked Ciattarelli over a previous NJ.com report that a medical publishing company he once owned received millions of dollars in pharmaceutical industry grants to create ongoing educational materials claiming there was a low risk of opioid abuse among chronic pain patients.
The issue arose during his last gubernatorial campaign against Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy in 2021.
“My opponent likes to talk a lot about being a businessman, but I think what New Jersey knows less about is his business, how he made millions working with some of the worst offenders and saying opioids were safe, making propaganda, publishing his propaganda, while tens of thousands of New Jerseyans died,” Sherrill said.
“Shame on you,” Ciattarelli responded before arguing that the flow of fentanyl into the United States increased due to Democratic border policies under former President Joe Biden.
“Shame on you, sir,” replied Sherrill.
“As far as everything she just said about my professional career, which brought my family, it’s a lie. I’m proud of my career,” Ciattarelli said.
“I think the people you got addicted to and died deserve better than you,” she said.
Ciattarelli then chimed in to say, “I have to walk to get my college degree.”
Ciattarelli accused Sherrill, who was first elected to Congress in 2018, of hypocrisy over the ongoing government shutdown.
“When there were shutdowns during the Biden era, she voted every time for the continuing resolution to keep the government open, to get it open again. This time, with Trump in the White House, she voted no on the resolutions to keep the government open,” Ciattarelli said.
Sherrill defended congressional Democrats’ push to restore health care funding in Medicaid, which was cut earlier this year, and provide Obamacare subsidies that could lead to premium hikes.
“They took away health care under the One Big Beautiful Bill for millions of people, and now they want to cut health care support for people who still get it with the marketplaces, the Affordable Care Act marketplaces, that’s what we’re fighting for,” Sherrill said.
“And so right now, with the president, the Senate and the House, all in the hands of the Republican Party, the fact is they have to work to reopen the government so that workers can get back to work.”
Both have repeatedly raised the issue of rising electricity bills, offering contrasting approaches to the emerging challenge.
Sherrill touted her plan to “declare a state of emergency, utility costs and free rate hikes,” and pledged to “introduce an energy arsenal while reducing costs over time, making sure we expand our solar, battery storage, improve our gas production in the state, and then expand nuclear power.”
Ciattarelli, for his part, blamed overinvestment in renewable energy projects, saying he would leave the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and favor a mix of fossil, solar and nuclear energy.
The end of the debate was marked by a series of light-hearted questions on a topic near and dear to the hearts of New Jerseyans, something that can confuse the uninitiated out-of-state driver.
New Jersey is the only state in the country where it is illegal for customers to fill their own tanks. Drivers can stay in their car while an attendant fills up the gas tank.
“I came to New Jersey on Delaware steamboats, especially when my kids were little and in the rain,” Sherrill said. “So I think a lot of people really like our state laws the way they are.”
In a rare moment of unity, Ciattarelli agreed with Sherrill.
“We have too many questionable distinctions, and I’m going to correct a lot of them. But one of our special differences here in New Jersey is that we don’t have to pump our own gas. Jersey girls don’t like to pump their own gas. We’ll continue to have full service,” he said.
