Noticias

A non-profit education group released a survey Thursday showing Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-Montclair) leading Republican Jack Ciattarelli in the race for governor, 48%-41%.

The poll, from a group named “yes. every kid.,” found unaffiliated voters split 39%-39% between Sherrill and Ciattarelli. 10% of voters remained undecided.

Recent polls, including an Emerson poll and a Ciattarelli campaign internal, have shown an incredibly tight race between the pair. This poll’s results are closer to the results from prior weeks, which found Sherrill with a 7- to 10-point lead.

The poll also found majorities of likely voters support establishing a refundable tax credit for education expenses and open enrollment in the state’s schools.

“New Jersey’s next governor has a real opportunity to lead on expanding options for families to curate their children’s educational experiences. yes. every kid.’s poll shows that voters want more education freedom,” said Erica Jedynak, the group’s CEO.

The New Jersey Globe reviewed the full poll.

The yes. every kid. poll was conducted Sept. 20-22 with a sample of 704 likely votes and a margin of error of +/-3.7%. 

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Rep. Mikie Sherrill, the Democratic nominee for governor of New Jersey, was barred from walking with her class at the U.S. Naval Academy in 1994 as a punishment connected to the massive cheating scandal that implicated over 130 midshipmen in her class.

A copy of the commencement program from May 25, 1994, obtained by the New Jersey Globe, does not include Sherrill’s name.  Sherrill said that her absence from the ceremony was a consequence of failing to report classmates who had been involved in the scandal.

“I didn’t turn in some of my classmates, so I didn’t walk, but graduated and was commissioned as an officer in the U.S. Navy, serving for nearly ten years with the highest level of distinction and honor,” Sherrill said.  

However, the Sherrill campaign rejected a request that she permit public inspection of any disciplinary records from her time at the academy.  Only Sherrill could authorize the release of those sealed records.

Sherrill has made her military service as a U.S. Naval Academy graduate and helicopter pilot the centerpiece of her political identity, but has never publicly discussed her class’s cheating controversy in stump speeches or interviews.  There were rumors that she was tied to the scandal in 2018 when she sought to flip a House seat in New Jersey’s 11th district, but it was suggested to the New Jersey Globe at the time that Sherrill was not involved.

The scandal revolved around electrical engineering exam answers that some midshipmen obtained and shared with their classmates in December 1992.  Two dozen of Sherrill’s classmates were expelled, and one of those involved said in 2002 that he thought more than 400 out of the 663 midshipmen who took the exam had seen copies of it in advance.

The events struck at the heart of Annapolis’s honor code, sparking congressional hearings and internal investigation; the resignation of Rear Adm. Thomas C. Lynch, the superintendent at Annapolis; and widespread debate over whether the institution had been too lenient in past cases of misconduct. The academy subsequently undertook significant reforms to strengthen its academic integrity system and restore public trust.

There was no interruption in Sherrill’s military service as a result of the scandal: she was assigned to Annapolis for 254 days after graduation as she awaited a spot to open up for her at the Navy flight school in Pensacola, Florida.  

Sherrill went on to serve in the Navy for nine years and had been recommended for promotion to the rank of lieutenant commander before her retirement in 2003.  The U.S. Naval Academy website lists Sherrill as a notable graduate.   She received the Navy Achievement Medal for saving the life of a fellow shipmate while at the academy, and the prestigious Distinguished Public Service Award in 2024 – the Navy’s highest civilian honor.

The news comes amid a tightening of the New Jersey governor’s race.  Sherrill had been ahead in every poll since the primary, but an Emerson College Polling/PIX 11/The Hill survey released today shows her tied with Republican Jack Ciattarelli at 43% each.

Sherrill pushed back on the relevance of the scandal to her gubernatorial campaign.

“Jack continues to try and use any avenue he can to execute the MAGA playbook of smearing military service,” she said.  “Now, his latest attempt is to go after a 30-year-old widely reported incident when I was an undergraduate at the Naval Academy.”

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The race for Governor of New Jersey between Democrat Mikie Sherrill and Republican Jack Ciattarelli is tied, 43%-43%, with 11% still undecided, according to a new Emerson College Polling/Pix 11/The Hill poll released his morning.

This is the first poll since 2024 in which Sherrill, a four-term congresswoman, is not in the lead, either in the Democratic primary or in a head-to-head matchup with Ciattarelli in the general election.  This independent poll mirrors an internal poll conducted by Ciattarelli campaign pollster Adam Geller that put the race at one point: 46% for Ciattarelli and 45% for Sherrill.

The poll puts Donald Trump underwater at a 41%-51% job approval rating, while Gov. Phil Murphy is upside-down at 44%-35%.

“The first Emerson College general election survey of New Jersey’s 2025 election for governor reveals a tightly contested race in the Garden State,” Spencer Kimball, executive director of Emerson College Polling, said. “Young voters, under 40, break for Sherrill by large margins, 58% to 24%. The race tightens to seven points among voters in their 40s, with Sherrill leading 47% to 40%, then Ciattarelli flips the script among voters over 50, leading Sherrill 52% to 36% among this group.”

Almost one-third of voters (30%) believe utility companies are responsible for the rising utility costs; 22% think the governor is responsible, 7% think the federal government is responsible, and 4% think the grid operator is responsible; 35% think all of these are responsible.

“New Jersey Democrats blame utility companies for the cost of utilities at 36%, whereas Republicans blame Governor Murphy at 36% — independents are split between the governor (27%) and utility companies (23%),” Kimball added.

The Emerson College Poling survey was conducted between September 22-23 with a sample size of 935 likely voters and has a margin of error of +/- 3.5%. 

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