Six counties that voted for Republican Donald Trump in the 2024 presidial election have flipped blue, early election results show, helping to cement Democrat Mikie Sherrill’s victory for governor of New Jersey. Five of those counties also backed Republican Jack Ciattarelli in the 2021 gubernatorial election.
Gloucester, Cumberland, Atlantic, Morris, Passaic and Hunterdon are all backing Sherill as of 10 p.m. on Election Night, Associated Press vote results show. (See all six counties voting history in the chart below.)
The Associated Press called the race for Sherrill, a Congresswoman from Morris County, around 9:30 p.m. on Election Night. She will be the second woman, and first Democrat woman, to lead New Jersey.
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Current Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat who is term limited, bested Ciattarelli in 2021 by just 3.22%. Sherrill currently has a 13.4% lead, according to AP results, with 82% of votes counted.
Votes will not be certified until later in November, and Sherrill’s margin of victory will likely change.
Sherrill and Ciattarelli were in a dead-heat heading into Election Day, several polls released just days before the election showed.
Five counties that supported Democrat Joe Biden in 2020 flipped to support Trump last year — Passaic, Morris, Gloucester, Cumberland and Atlantic. (Electoral delegates are awarded based on the overall statewide vote.)
New Jersey still voted for the Democratic presidential nominee during the 2024 election, but by the smallest margin in decades. Vice President Kamala Harris won New Jersey by 6 percentage points, the smallest margin for a Democratic candidate for president since 1992.
Republican voter registration has surged across New Jersey in the past four years, despite the overall number of registered voters staying relatively stagnant. GOP membership increased by 10% between the start of Gov. Phil Murphy’s second term, and October 2025.
But Democrats maintain a significant registration lead, and that lead was insurmountable for Ciattarelli.
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