New Jersey is one of two states in the nation that holds its election for governor the year after a Presidential election. And in 2025, after two terms leading the Garden State, Phil Murphy must step aside. This opening has led many to throw their hats into the ring, with six Democrats and five Republicans on the Primary Election Day ballots. On June 10th (or before through Vote-by-Mail and Early Voting), all registered Democrat, Republican and Unaffiliated (with a declaration at the polls) voters can weigh in to help determine the final two Major Party candidates that will go head-to-head in the General Election. (You can read more about registering, who can cast your votes and where, District 16 and all other candidates here).
The candidates include people serving in Congress, Mayors, former and current State Senators, a talk show host, union President and some newer to politics. As Dr. Kristoffer Shields shared with Princeton Perspectives in January, for 50 years neither party has held the New Jersey governorship for more than two consecutive terms. Does that mean a Republican has the advantage? Not if the Dems have their way. The race is on. All care about New Jersey and want your vote. But which one is best for Mercer County? Read on to see what each candidate stands for and their message to local voters.
DEMOCRATS FOR GOVERNOR
Ras Baraka is currently serving as Mayor of Newark, a role he’s held since 2014. As Newark’s Mayor, Baraka says his focus has been on improving lives of working families. A progressive leader, he has mandated that 20% of all new developments be affordable housing, implemented Newark’s first climate action plan, and reduced chronic homelessness.
As governor, he seeks to further equity and bridge the gaps between the state’s wealthiest and lowest income earners with more affordable housing, expanded Medicaid services, as well as promoting more affordable and accessible healthcare. Baraka wants to make it easier for New Jerseyans to vote and make government more transparent. He believes there is much work to be done to advance policies to fight climate change.
Steve Fulop has been Mayor of Jersey City since 2013. As governor, he hopes to restore trust in elected leadership. With a commitment to protecting the environment and improving the state’s energy infrastructure, Fulop would also like to double the affordable housing production to meet NJ’s needs. He believes there is a lot of work to be done in criminal justice reform and seeks to continue to enhance an already strong education system with some funding reforms, universal Pre-K and improved services. If elected, Fulop would like to expand paid family leave and eliminate hurdles to child-care, as well as create a more integrated public health system statewide.
“While my experience has been as a mayor in North Jersey, the concerns residents face are remarkably similar throughout New Jersey, and real solutions require actual experience delivering results. That’s why our campaign is the only one offering detailed, in-depth policy plans across a wide range of issues, which I encourage voters to explore at stevenfulop.com/policies. Affordability remains the overriding issue for families across the state, and tackling the corruption tax, the inflated costs driven by entrenched political interests, will be a top priority. I’ve built my career standing up to political machines, and as governor, I’ll continue to lead with independence and put the interests of New Jersey residents first,” shares Mayor Fulop.
Josh Gottheimer has been U.S. Congressman for NJ’s 5th District since 2016. His priority, as what he describes as the ‘Lower Taxes, Lower Costs’ Governor, will be to lower residents’ costs for utilities, childcare, housing, healthcare and food. Gottheimer aims to counter President Trump’s tariffs by getting New Jersey products exempt from reciprocal tariffs and says he wants to ensure people are protected on everything from funding cuts to healthcare access for LGBTQ+ and women.
“Since launching my campaign, I’ve traveled to every corner of the state, including Mercer County—and one issue comes up everywhere I go: New Jersey is just too expensive. From property taxes to rents to utility bills to Trump’s reckless tariffs that are jacking up prices, families are getting crushed. I’m running for governor to change that. I’ll fight to lower taxes and lower costs for everyone, and I’m the only candidate who has released detailed, expert-backed plans that lay out exactly how I’ll do it. Too many people can’t afford to stay in Jersey when they graduate, to raise a family, or when they retire. I’ll cut property taxes by nearly 15%, give renters an annual rebate, lower income taxes for families, give seniors who have lived here a “Senior Bonus,” and incentivize people and jobs to move to Jersey, so we can grow our economy,” Gottheimer states. “We’ve also got to fight Donald Trump when he messes with Jersey families. I’ve laid out a roadmap for how I’ll defend our communities and stop Trump’s attacks on our seniors, on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, on our families, our rights, and our state. I have a long record of getting things done and solving the toughest problems. From helping negotiate, write, and pass the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill, which is fixing our roads, bridges, and building the Gateway Train Tunnel, to passing the first commonsense gun safety bill in decades to the largest investment to fight climate change ever, I’ve always taken on fights that people said were impossible. I’m tenacious and tough and I won’t stop fighting until we get the job done.”
Mikie Sherrill was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives for NJ’s 11th District in 2018. As governor, she plans to make NJ more affordable with regards to housing, food and healthcare. She intends to uphold a woman’s right to choose, by permanently protecting it in the state constitution. Making childcare affordable, improving public transportation and curbing flooding are top priorities for her. As governor, Sherrill wants to boost the technology sector across the state while ensuring that online safety is protected. Supporting working families and making their lives better is her goal.
“As I’ve traveled across the state, including in Mercer County, I’ve heard the same story over and over: costs are just too high and it’s too hard for New Jersey families to get ahead. As governor, I’ll bring a different kind of leadership to Trenton to change that. I’ll put innovation and common sense to work to drive real solutions to bring down housing, health care, and utility bills, and I encourage Mercer residents to take a look at my Affordability Agenda. I will also work collaboratively with county and local leaders to make sure Mercer County is getting the funding it needs from the state so residents can thrive, whether that’s through smart infrastructure planning, upgrading our public transit system, expanding workforce housing, or increased support for small businesses. And I’ll fight hard to protect programs like Medicaid and SNAP, along with federal grant dollars that are critical to supporting Mercer County residents. I look forward to being a good partner to Mercer County and ensuring that the state pays its fair share in revitalizing and supporting our Capital City,” said Mikie Sherrill.
Sean Spiller was Mayor of Montclair for one term and now works as the President of New Jersey Education Association (NJEA). Making sure that people can afford to live in NJ, through affordable housing, childcare and healthcare, are his top priorities as governor. With a goal of clean energy by 2035, Spiller seeks to expand the EV structure and tax credit, invest in aging infrastructure and efficiency. As a labor leader, he wants to create more jobs with better wages and hopes to improve on NJ’s strong education while supporting LGBTQ+ rights and gun sensible laws.
“As I’ve traveled across Mercer County, I’ve heard the same thing from so many voters: they want a governor who will stand up to the wealthy special interests and actually make New Jersey affordable again for hard working people. That’s why I’m running. I’m a high school science teacher, an immigrant, a mayor, and the proud father of two. I’m not the handpicked candidate in this race and I don’t have big corporate donors, but I am the candidate who will actually deliver lower prices, quality health care, real transit solutions, and bring down the cost to rent or buy a home. I’m also the one candidate with the experience standing up to bullies like Donald Trump and the rich developers and wall street insiders who think they can buy their way into the Governor’s office,” shares Spiller.
Steve Sweeney represented the 3rd Legislative District in the NJ Senate for 20 years, until 2022, serving as its President for his last 12 years. After raising a daughter with down syndrome, he became a champion for people with disabilities and wants to continue ensuring access and opportunity, fighting for good education reform and to ensure parents have what they need to care for their families. Sweeney plans to lower housing costs through assistance and tax credits, promises no new taxes under his administration and has plans to lower energy costs. Improving quality of life through better infrastructure as well as protections for LGBTQ+, reproductive freedom are priorities.
“He fought for millions in funding for Mercer public schools, including $20 million in additional funding for schools in Trenton,” shares Sweeney Press Secretary, Kerry Lyons. “Now, as he runs for governor, he is focused on lowering costs in New Jersey with his detailed and bold vision. He’s committed to making New Jersey more resilient and affordable with his Builders Agenda, pledging to take an all-of-the-above energy approach, build 200,000 affordable housing units, and modernize the state’s infrastructure while creating new, good-paying jobs in Mercer County, and he’ll fully fund Stay NJ and eliminate the retirement income tax for those who need it most. Moreover, he’ll support Mercer’s higher education institutions in the face of a Trump Administration that is gutting the Department of Education with his higher education plan and the establishment of a new state agency to strengthen partnerships with both the state and capital to boost research and development and bring in more funding in resources to our universities, county colleges, and trade schools.”
REPUBLICANS FOR GOVERNOR
Justin Barbera is new to politics, having run a construction company for 20 years, representing homeowners in insurance claims. He says, “Enough is enough, uncompromised,” and hopes, as governor, he can eliminate what he describes as New Jerseyans being taken advantage of through insurance, whether for home, auto or healthcare. The first thing Barbera plans to do is to expose government corruption, and through executive order, ensure that gun rights are maintained.
“As a contractor, I understand our infrastructure and Mercer County has a lot of infrastructure problems such as housing, transportation and energy. I want to bring that to the forefront and make NJ shine, using technologies used around the world that we can implement right here,” Barbera explains. “Piazo electricity, for example, is used in Tokyo on the subway where it generates energy back into the grid through foot traffic. I’d like to evolve that into road energy as well. I am uncompromised, I haven’t taken any tax dollars or donations for this campaign. I’m #1 on the ballot in Mercer, I’m the lunchbox candidate for NJ this year. The first time in state history that an unfunded candidate of the people is on the ballot in the #1 spot.”
Jon Bramnick was chosen as the Republican leader of the State Assembly five times from 2012-2021 and has since been representing NJ’s 22nd Legislative District in the Senate since 2022. He is also a founding partner of his law firm in Scotch Plains and has taught business law as assistant professor at Rider University and an adjunct professor at Rutgers University. He has worked, and hopes to continue as governor, to lower the cost of living across the state, stop the building and overturn court mandated housing and end the catch and release policy to make NJ a safer place for all.
“Municipalities across Mercer County are facing an onslaught of mandated high-density housing. These large-scale developments are placing huge burdens on the infrastructure, emergency services and classrooms. As the Assembly Republican Leader and State Senator I have worked to end this state mandated over-development and as governor I will put an end to the town-by-town mandates and return to a regional approach for affordable housing decisions,” states Bramnick.
He continues, “My first priority as governor is to end the billion-dollar, last minute, pork spending in the budget that has driven up taxes in New Jersey and consolidate the budget to reduce the tax burden on our residents to make the State more affordable.”
Jack Ciattarelli is a small business owner, entrepreneur and former District 16 Assemblyman who lost in a tight race to incumbent Governor Phil Murphy in 2021. By capping property taxes and reducing income taxes, he hopes to help make NJ more affordable. Ciattarelli aims to trim unnecessary government spending and enact term limits for state legislators. By lowering insurance costs, ensuring more healthcare is covered and defending individual rights he hopes NJ will again be the state where people want to live and will thrive.
“It was my honor to serve the residents of District 16 in the State Assembly. It wasn’t an easy district to win, Democrats outnumber Republicans by a lot, but I won by focusing on the issues that matter to all of us and going anywhere to talk to anyone with dignity and respect. Some will remember, I put my district office in Princeton & knocked more doors there than any candidate had before or since.
I’m running for governor to fix the major crises that are crippling our state; affordability, public safety, public education & overdevelopment. Our taxes are too high. Individuals and businesses in New Jersey are among the highest taxed in the world. It’s forcing families, retirees, and entrepreneurs out. We can fix it. I will on Day One,” Ciattarelli states. “On public safety, bail reform has been a failed experiment. We’ve seen crimes like car thefts and home invasions skyrocket with professional criminals who know they’ll get released the next day. It has to stop. On public education, New Jersey just slipped from 2nd to 12th on the national scorecard. In failing districts like Newark, we see entire generations below grade level in reading & math. We need high impact curriculums, a return to basics, an emphasis on skill & job trainings, and a new school funding formula. On overdevelopment, we need to make all housing more affordable through tax code changes & we need to stop forcing suburbs to build housing where there isn’t infrastructure to support it, it just doesn’t make sense. It’s taking the garden out of our Garden State.”
Mario Kranjac is an attorney, venture capitalist and former Mayor of Englewood Cliffs that wants to make NJ great again. With a plan to cut property taxes 2% each year of his term, Kranjac wants to also protect NJ residents by working with President Trump to secure the border, being tough on crime, and making government more transparent. As a businessman, he intends to cut regulations and taxes to promote small business growth. Kranjac says it a priority to ensure schools educate, not indoctrinate, and protect life from conception.
“My top priority will be addressing the affordability crisis New Jerseyans are facing and which is caused by the out-control cost of government. We’ll cut taxes, cut spending, end wasteful programs, and eliminate duplicative offices like the County School Superintendents. On day one, we’ll repeal Murphy’s green agenda to get electricity prices down, end New Jersey’s sanctuary state status, and eliminate the $1 million line item from Murphy’s budget to fight President Trump in court. We’ll also eradicate unconstitutional high-density housing mandates from state law and reform school funding so that the money follows the child, and parents have radical choice in their children’s education. My election integrity plan to require hand-marked, hand-counted paper ballots will be particularly helpful to Mercer County residents who suffered terrible voter disenfranchisement during the 2022 midterm elections.”
Bill Spadea is an entrepreneur and media personality who wants to cut waste and lower taxes as NJ’s Governor. By cooperating with the federal government on illegal immigration and focusing on repairing and improving the crumbling infrastructure across the state, he feels NJ can have a brighter future.
“My wife Jodi and I chose Princeton as the place to dig our roots and build our foundation. I’ve been in this town and culture of this town for the past 20 years. We love it. What I’ve found is that none of the politicians running for governor speak to anything related to the hyper-local feeling people get when they read Princeton Perspectives or listen to my radio show. I learned a lot with my show. I had no intention of running for governor. But I talked about what impacted people and I listened and heard a level of frustration that’s off the charts. My ratings would go up the worse things got. I got sick of it,” Spadea explained. “The Republicans were poised to nominate Jack again. That’s what drove me to run. Normal families, average people that worry about potholes because they can’t afford $800 to fix their tires, regular folks who think the school agenda has gotten too radical, they deserve a voice. Something had to break, and I decided to run based on that.
We’re going to fix it by establishing accountability in government affordability, by lowering our taxes and improving public safety. That is the basis for the policies I’m going to implement when I’m governor. I will have 100 executive orders to implement in first 100 days in office. I’m not going to wait for the legislature. I’m going to root out what’s broken and deal directly with stakeholders to end a lot of these subsidies and misallocation of funds. The first thing I’m going to do is declare a state of emergency and suspend bail reform. It started with good intentions but has devolved with a revolving door for criminals to get out of jail. You can’t have liberty and prosperity if you don’t have safe streets. The 2nd thing is going to be to end sanctuary for illegal aliens. That means a huge savings for tax payers. The estimated cost of illegal immigration is above $7B in our state. That’s hurting families and small businesses We have to provide them relief.”
CASTING YOUR VOTES
If you have already received your Vote-by-Mail ballot, you can fill it out and either place it in a Secure Drop Box or mail it back. Unaffiliated voters can affiliate in advance or simply show up to the polls and declare a party to vote for. All voters can read Your Vote on Primary Day Can Impact the Races for District 16 and the State to learn about where and when to vote and all the other candidates that will appear on the ballot.
Educate yourself now, vote by June 10th.
Lisa Jacknow spent years working in national and local news in and around New York City before moving to Princeton. Working as both a TV producer and news reporter, Lisa came to this area to focus on the local news of Mercer County at WZBN-TV. In recent years, she got immersed in the Princeton community by serving leadership roles at local schools in addition to volunteering for other local non-profits. In her free time, Lisa loves to spend time with her family, play tennis, sing and play the piano. A graduate of the S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, Lisa was raised just north of Boston, Massachusetts but has lived in the tri-state area since college. She is excited to be Editor and head writer for Princeton Perspectives!