Transcript of NJ Governor Elect Mikie Sherrill Discusses Big Election Victory

We all know by now that Donald Trump and MAGA and the Republican candidates got a rude awakening throughout the country on Tuesday. A blue tsunami swept over the country. And nowhere is that more true than in New Jersey with the incredible race, with the new governor-elect, Mikey Sheryl there. And there was an incredible moment that I think sums it all up in the debate that governor-elect Sheryl had with the MAGA Republican candidate, Jack Ciittarelli. Ciittarelli was asked in the debate, What grade do you give Donald Trump so far? I'll show you what Chitterelle answers, and watch how governor-elect Sheryl responds. Let's play this clip.

What grade would you give President Trump for a second term? Right now, I'd certainly give the President A. I think he's right about everything that he's doing. I think that tells us all we need to know about who Jack Chitterelle is supporting. I give him an F. Right now, we see at every single level, costs are going up on New Jerseyans. So whether it's the tariff that are costing you more from everything from a cup of coffee to the groceries you buy for dinner at night to the one big, beautiful bill which will raise health care, energy, and housing.

Let's be clear, the American people give Donald Trump an F as well. But it wasn't just an anti-Trump race. Governor-elect Sheryl went on the offense talking about a message of affordability, affordability, affordability. Here was her closing message in contrast to Chittarelle, just saying he's going to do whatever Donald Trump wants, including destroying destroying tunnel projects and getting rid of jobs of tens of thousands or even more people from New Jersey. Here's what Governor-elect Sheryl said. Let's play.

This race has been about affordability, and that's because I speak to thousands and thousands of New Jersey and sometimes a day. The thing on their minds is cost, both utility costs, housing costs, health care costs, and then how they keep getting worse under this administration with the tariffs, with the one big, beautiful bill, with the recent attacks on the gateway We're seeing lots of responses from MAGA voters and Trump voters, people who voted for Donald Trump three times, messages like this, Listen up, I voted for Trump three times.

I'm 100% MAGA, but sadly, this administration doesn't support me anymore. As a guy who voted for Trump three times, I'm fed up. I'm a Trump supporter. I voted for him three times, but I'm not feeling a single benefit economically. When you just look at the map as well, the various counties and municipalities in Jersey, take a look, some big swings, especially in some of the areas where Donald Trump, surprise, surprise, was destroying people's livelihood and jobs. In other words, as this one account says, the GOP said goodbye to the train line suburbs right there, and that flipped significantly towards blue. Hispanic areas dramatically reverted blue to where they were in 2021. In many cases, even more people supporting Governor elect, Mikey Sherrill there. Pretty much all of the counties, dramatic ships throughout New Jersey. Here's what Donald Trump is even saying today. He's obviously not getting the message because today he's going, I solved inflation. There's no inflation. Everybody's doing great. Here's what he says today.

They had the worst inflation in 48 years. We have almost no inflation. We're down now to 2%, and we'll be at maybe 1%. You want to always stay above 1%, actually. You want a little tiny bit of inflation.

Let's bring in Governor-Elect Mikey Sheryl from the great state of New Jersey. Governor-elect Sheryl, congratulations, and it's great to have you here. Let's talk about the race, but just first, even after the resounding message that the voters sent, Trump and MAGA Mike and all of these Republicans are saying it's a golden age. Everything's great. There's no inflation. Thanksgiving's 25 % cheaper. They're saying that today. What do you make of that?

Well, the long con that Trump is famous for and trying to make voters think that what their lion eyes, don't believe your own lion eyes or something. So what this race showed definitively is that voters aren't buying it. And so I am hoping that what this will do is really galvanize some of the Republicans who I think have to see what's coming next year to get off their butts and try to start delivering for the American people. Engage, get health care costs down and open the government. Stop messing around with key infrastructure projects. Get this tariff thing under control. Stop this. The tariff program is a worldwide extortion racket where costs are going up on everyone here, and yet Trump's pocketing billions. They have got to do their job and start serving the American people. And in the tariff thing in particular, that is Congress's power. So the Republican majority in the House and the Senate have to start taking taking back power and actually serving the people.

When you look at some of those municipality shifts, some of the county shifts, areas that went Trump in 2024 or went more Trumpy in 2024 than in 2021, we've seen dramatic shifts back, even more so than what any poster predicted when all was said and done. It's yet another overperformance, as they're calling it. But I think we've interviewed you many times on the campaign, and you were saying, Look, whatever these posts are saying, I'm meeting the people in all of these counties, and I'm hearing their stories. I think that's what matters the most. And look, you were right, but people were telling you how they were feeling, more so than what was picked up in any of those polls.

So it's funny because I always felt pretty confident in exactly what we were doing, and that's largely because I was speaking to thousands of people on the ground. But polling Everything generally takes into account the last two races, and those were really bad for Democrats here. And so when we saw those five to eight-point polls, we thought those were very conservative and felt pretty good about the path we were on. I was thinking I'd win by 10. So the 14-point win is big and I think shows how galvanized people are here. But it really, as I spoke to people, I think what we built here is the traditional democratic juggernut, and then some. And by that, I mean, we got out working people. We got out working people in the suburbs. We got out the black community. We got out the Latino community because what working people need to see is good government. People want good education for their kids so that it creates opportunity. They want good jobs. They want a good economy. They want a chance to succeed. And that's always been where I've centered my work as someone who comes from a union family.

And I tell you, my dad grew up poor, and he had a good shot at success because of opportunities offered in this country. I want to create that success for everyone. That's really important to our working communities more than really anyone, because good government makes such a difference in their opportunity. But then, because of what I've built over the years in New Jersey in my races, we also got a significant portion of suburban women and the moderate swing, moderate Republican swinging. I think all of that is just, again, government competency, driving down costs, driving in good schools, good jobs, a good economy. And all of that is at risk right now because Trump is basically destroying the economy.

One of the data points I saw that many people said, wow, that's an interesting shift, is also young men, because Chitterelle tried to portray himself as this, I'm the MAGA alpha pod bro. He tried to do that whole shtick. But I think even young men looked at this and Especially, set aside young men, young people in general, too, that 18 to 29 said, You all rug pulled. That's their expression. You rug pulled us and you told us that you were going to get us jobs and things were going to be great, Donald Trump, and that we were going to be rich, and you did all the videos with our podcasters and our YouTube, and now you've screwed us. Now that 18 to 29-year-old unemployment number is like 9. 2, 10%, 11%, and they're really struggling. That shift, to me, is meaningful getting the young people, getting Gen Z back as well. What do you make of that?

Three things. Number one, I think that you're exactly right. They see what's happening because they are seeing the jobs numbers. In other words, I'm talking to college kids, and they don't see a job market for them. I'm talking to kids who've had jobs that have been with rescinded. And just remember, a little bit over a year ago, I was hearing from my company saying, We're expanding. We just need you to make sure we have the workforce we need. And now they're all contracting. They're laying people off because of this economy. So that's A. B, I would say that voters are always smarter than I think a lot of people give them credit for. And so I think my opponent's bravado was not authentic. The fact that, oh, he's just going to be a good Jersey guy and you can trust him. I don't think voters did. He was not running on his record. He was He was running towards Trump. So that, I think, young people, especially, I think gage authenticity and see it very clearly. And that was not the type of campaign he was running. And then finally, I'll just say, I'm a mom of teenage boys.

And so I was at this one event, and there were these teenage boys who were doing all these selfies, and they were laughing with each other, and they were doing little hard things to me on the stage. I'm doing this rally, and I'm thinking, Are these guys trolling me? I'm looking at these teenage boys who seem so excited. And I said to someone afterwards, What was going on there? They're like, They are so excited. You don't know how many doors they've knocked. So I will tell you, we saw all the young people. Even I was surprised to see the engagement and enthusiasm from young people. And I think that's because they have been through it. They have been through the pandemic. They have been through a lot of bad news. They're seeing the economy. And to be able to take some power in this space, to be able to get involved in an election and to fight for their future and to decide, I'm listening to what she's laying out. I see opportunity. I don't see it in that guy's race. I see myself in this future in New Jersey, and that's what I want.

To then be able to get involved was something... We saw young people in 2018 in my first race, but this felt different. This felt like a very empowering where young people were saying, I am fighting for the future that I want to see. It was great. It was really something that I really valued, and I'm going to keep engaging so we can make sure we get this economy right.

That's where we're at now. So talk to us about the transition, looking forward, the elections behind you, and now you look forward to defending a state that's under attack from the Trump regime. He's taking away jobs. He's destroying programs, both in Manhattan and with commuters that are head there and New Jersey jobs that rely on that. So what do you do right now in this transition? And as you look forward to year one, what are you thinking about right now?

So right now we're just the economy, right? So we have about 22 states. Last I looked that we're in an actual recession right now. We see just the Snap funding going away. People can't meet those states, can't meet those needs. That's a huge part of a state budget. We also see a lot of that. Here in New Jersey, the marketplace, your premiums are going up by 175% right now. So all of this is on the table. People are seeing this very clearly. Again, part of the reason I was working so hard in this race to create these big margins, we needed a win here for many reasons. But the bigger win that we were working towards was so that we could send a message. This is very unpopular. Republicans, you need to stop. You need to get on board with actually coming up with a plan that's going to serve the American people. So hopefully this will get some more reasonably minded people to grow a spine and do something about this because right now they have the presidency, the Senate, and the House. However, in the States, these governor's positions are now more important than ever as we work together to create different pathways for it and regional efforts on innovation, regional efforts on making sure insurance companies are covering vaccinations for kids, how we are continuing to grow an opportunity in our States and having pathways for everyone to come to the table, not just a chosen few.

So what we're running here is the traditional American economy of delivering for working people, delivering on the middle class, on jobs, providing pathways for poor people in our States into the middle class and all of those different ways we do it through education, through job opportunities, through apprenticeship programs, training. That is what New Jersey is doubling down on. That's what the people of New Jersey want to see. And it's going to be a fight to try to make the Republicans in Washington who are trying to attack these economies, trying to enrich themselves at the expense of everyday Americans, to make them see that that is not a pathway for it, that the American people are going to accept. So they've either got to get on board with this and start to really think about how they're going to grow opportunity, or they will be out of a job very shortly.

New Jersey, governor-elect, Mikey Sheryl. Great to have you join us post-election. And I just want to say this, on a professional level, it's been an honor covering your campaign, literally from the day it was announced and seeing how a good professional, people-powered, Fighting for the Future of Americans campaign is run. So thanks for all you do.

Well, thank you so much. It was truly an honor to run here and to galvanize people here in New Jersey. It's really important to us. So thank you, and thank you so much for all of your engagement. I really appreciate it.

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