New Jersey governor race tightens with 2 weeks until election day

With two weeks up to election day, The latest opinion polls indicate a possible end to the battle for governor of New Jersey, and the two major party candidates are urging their supporters to get out and vote.

“When we vote, we win,” Democratic candidate Rep. Mikie Sherrill said last weekend at a rally.

Her Republican opponent, Jack Ciattarelli, told his supporters, “Championship teams finish strong… Let’s win this race.”

New Jersey is one of two states, along with Virginia, that will hold statewide elections for governor next November. These elections, which traditionally garner great national attention, are seen as crucial early tests for the president Donald Trump And an unprecedented and relentless second term agenda, as well as key metrics ahead of next year’s midterm showdowns between the US House and Senate.

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New Jersey Democratic gubernatorial candidate Rep. Mickey Sherrill, right, and Republican candidate Jack Ciattarelli, pose on stage moments at the start of their second and final debate, on October 8, 2025, in New Brunswick, New Jersey. (Paul Steinhauser/Fox News Digital)

Also in the political spotlight next November are a high-profile New York City mayoral election, a ballot box proposal for congressional redistricting in California, and three contests for the Supreme Court in Pennsylvania.

Democrats, aiming to emerge from the political wilderness following last year’s electoral setbacks when they lost control of the White House and Senate and failed to regain a majority in the House, are highlighting their success so far this year in a special election.

“There’s a wind at our back” Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairman Ken Martin recently promoted. “We have outperformed in every election on the ballot since Donald Trump’s inauguration.”

One of the best races of 2025 could end in a photo finish

But Republicans point to the many problems facing the Democratic Party.

“Sadly for the Democratic Party, the reality is that Democrats’ approval ratings are at a 30-year low, with the party losing more than 2 million voters over the past four years.” Republican National Committee Communications Director Zach Parkinson told Fox News Digital recently.

Here’s a closer look at the most important elections of 2025.

New Jersey

Ciattarelli, who is making his third straight run for governor in the Garden State and who nearly upset Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy four years ago, has good reason to be optimistic he can pull off a victory in the blue-leaning election. New Jersey.

In a state where registered Democrats still outnumber Republicans despite a GOP surge in registration this decade, three public opinion polls released last week — from Fox News, Quinnipiac University and Fairleigh Dickinson University — suggest Ciattarelli is closing the gap with Democratic gubernatorial candidate Rep. Mickey Sherrill in the race to succeed term-limited Murphy.

Jack Ciattarelli, Republican candidate for governor of New Jersey, speaks to a loud crowd of supporters at a restaurant in Saddle Brook, New Jersey, on October 15, 2025. (Paul Steinhauser/Fox News)

the fox news poll, Conducted from October 10 to 14, Sherrill received 50% support among likely voters, while Ciattarelli received 45%. Sherrill’s lead is down 5 points from his 8-point lead in the September Fox News poll in New Jersey.

While Democrats have long dominated federal and state elections in blue-leaning New Jersey, Republicans are highly competitive in gubernatorial contests, winning five of the past 10 elections.

Trump made big gains in New Jersey in last year’s presidential election, losing the state by just six percentage points, a significant improvement over his 16-point deficit four years ago.

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Multiple sources have confirmed to Fox News that Trump will hold a rally by phone with Chiattarelli before Election Day. Trump’s collaboration with Chiattarelli may help energize MAGA supporters, many of whom are low-propensity voters who often skip casting ballots in non-presidential election years.

The race in New Jersey was rocked two weeks ago by a report that the National Personnel Records Center, a branch of the National Archives and Records Administration, had mistakenly released Cheryl’s inappropriately redacted military personnel files, which included private information such as her Social Security number, to a Ciattarelli ally.

Rep. Mykel Sherrill of New Jersey, Democratic gubernatorial nominee, speaks at a news conference on October 13, 2025, in Clifton, New Jersey. (Mickey Sherrill campaign)

But Cheryl’s military records indicated that the US Naval Academy barred her from participating in its 1994 graduation ceremony amid a cheating scandal.

Sherrill, who was never accused of cheating in the scandal, went on to serve for nearly a decade in the Navy, flying helicopters.

The standoff was rocked again two weeks ago by Sherrill’s allegations that Ciattarelli was “complicit” with drug companies in the opioid deaths of tens of thousands of New Jersey residents, as she pointed to his medical publishing company pushing content promoting the use of opioids as a low-risk treatment for chronic pain.

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Last week, Trump launched a political hand grenade into the race, “holding up” billions of federal dollars for the Gateway Project, which funds a new train tunnel under the Hudson River linking New Jersey and New York.

Sherrill, who held a news conference Thursday at a major rail station a few miles from the tunnel site in one of the nation’s busiest train corridors, called the project “important” as she took aim at Trump and Ciattarelli.

Virginia

Explosive discoveries in Attorney General Race in Virginia The GOP’s quest to capitalize on up-and-down polling has recently rocked the race for governor, forcing the Democratic Party’s nominee, former Rep. Abigail Spanberger, back on the defensive in a race that most polls have indicated has a significant lead over her Republican challenger, Lt. Gov. Winsome Earl Sears.

Virginia’s two main party gubernatorial candidates are: Republican Gov. Winsome Earl Sears, left, and former Democratic Rep. Abigail Spanberger. (Getty Images)

Virginia’s attorney general, Democratic nominee Jay Jones, has been in crisis mode since National Review first published his controversial transcripts two weeks ago.

Jones admitted and apologized for text messages he sent in 2022, when he compared then-Virginia House Speaker Todd Gilbert to mass murderers Adolf Hitler and Pol Pot, adding that if he got two bullets, he would use them against the GOP lawmaker to shoot him in the head.

But he faces a host of calls from Republicans to withdraw from the race.

Earl Sears did not waste an opportunity to connect Spanberger with Jones.

During the only chaotic debate this month, in which Earl Sears repeatedly interrupted Spanberger, the GOP gubernatorial nominee called on her Democratic rival to tell Jones to end his bid for attorney general.

For the latest FOX NEWS reports on the Virginia showdown, head here

“The comments made by Jay Jones are extremely abhorrent,” Spanberger said in the discussion. But she neither confirmed nor retracted her support for Jones.

Earl Sears kept up the pressure.

“Abigail Spanberger should have been the first to call on Jay Jones to step down. Instead, she redoubled her efforts, because deep down, she agrees with what he said,” Earl Sears recently argued in a social media post.

New York City

Municipal elections in the country’s most populous city always garner a lot of attention, especially this year New York City It may elect the first Muslim and the first millennial mayor.

33-year-old Social Democratic MP Zahran Mamdani Victory in the Democratic primary in June sent political shockwaves across the country. He was attacked by Republicans and his rivals at the polls because of his extreme leftist proposals.

From left, independent mayoral candidate, former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa, and Democratic candidate Zahran Mamdani, participate in the New York mayoral debate, on Thursday, October 16, 2025. (Angelina Katsanis/Pool-AP Photo)

Mamdani is the front-runner in polls and fundraising in the heavily blue city where he faces the former governor. Andrew CuomoHe came in second place by a wide margin in the primaries and is now running as an independent candidate. Cuomo aims to make a political comeback after resigning as governor four years ago amid multiple scandals.

The latest Fox News reports on New York City’s mayoral elections are here

Also running is two-time Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa, a co-founder of Guardian Angels, a volunteer-based community safety nonprofit group.

Embattled Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat who was running for re-election as an independent, dropped out of the race last month, but his name remains on the ballot.

ca

Voters in California is intensely blue They will vote in November on whether to set aside the nonpartisan Redistricting Commission for the rest of the decade and allow the Democratic-dominated Legislature to determine congressional redistricting for the next three election cycles.

The vote will be the culmination of the government’s efforts. Gavin Newsom And California Democrats to create up to five left-leaning congressional seats in the Golden State to counter new maps that conservative Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law last week, which will create up to five more right-leaning U.S. House districts in the red state of Texas.

Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom of California speaks during a congressional redistricting event, Thursday, August 14, 2025, in Los Angeles. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

The redistricting in Texas, which came after Trump’s urging, is part of a broader effort by the GOP across the country to consolidate its razor-thin House majority to maintain control of the chamber in the 2026 midterm elections, when the party in power traditionally faces political headwinds and loses seats.

Opinion polls indicate majority support for passing what is known as Proposition 50.

Pennsylvania

Democrats currently hold a 5-2 majority on the Northeast Supreme Court Battlefield in Pennsylvania.

But three Democratic-leaning justices on the state Supreme Court, after completing their 10-year terms, are running this year to retain their seats in a yes-or-no retention election.

The election could upend the makeup of the court over the next decade, dramatically influence whether Democrats or Republicans have an advantage in the congressional delegation and state legislature, and impact crucial issues including voting rights and reproductive rights.

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While state Supreme Court elections don’t typically get much national attention, contests in which the balance of the court in a key battleground state is up for the taking have attracted tons of outside money.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court showdown this spring, where a 4-3 liberal majority was preserved, has attracted nearly $100 million in outside money as both parties pour resources into the election.