Jersey City, New Jersey
CNN
—
In 2018, Democrats won back the House — ending eight years of Republican control — with the help of dozens of candidates with national security backgrounds who vowed to serve as a check against the first Trump administration.
This year, two of those successful candidates — Virginia’s Abigail Spanberger and New Jersey’s Mikie Sherrill — are taking on a new challenge following President Donald Trump’s return to power: running for governor.
As Democrats grapple with how best to improve their diminished standing with voters, the upcoming races for governor in Virginia and New Jersey will serve as crucial tests for the party ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. Spanberger’s and Sherrill’s campaigns could offer critical clues to next year’s candidates as they seek to understand the mood of the electorate a year after Trump’s 2024 victory.
The two candidates — and former Capitol Hill roommates — are facing vastly different races.
Sherrill is one of half a dozen candidates seeking to portray themselves as the Democratic fighter best positioned to take on the eventual Republican nominee and the Trump administration ahead of a June 10 primary. One recent Sherrill ad warns that Jack Ciattarelli, who was endorsed by Trump this month, will bring the president’s “MAGA agenda” to the state. The spot highlights Sherrill’s record as a Navy pilot and federal prosecutor and describes her as the Democrat “Republicans fear.”
Spanberger — who, like her Republican opponent, Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, is running unopposed — is directing much of her focus toward criticizing the record of outgoing Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin. The former CIA intelligence officer has hammered Earle-Sears and Youngkin over their response to the Department of Government Efficiency as the Elon Musk-led effort aims to shrink the size of the federal workforce that employs more than 300,000 Virginians.
Spanberger, who did not run for reelection in the House last year, and Sherrill, who held on to her seat, are portraying themselves as results driven and willing to buck their party if necessary.
“People can label me however they want as a question of policy, but I think what is the most substantial characteristic that I ascribe to myself is pragmatic,” Spanberger told CNN in an interview earlier this year. “Throughout my time in Congress, my frustration — when I had expressed it at various different points in time — was rooted in that pragmatism.”
They are also testing out ways to message on economic concerns, an area where Trump held a significant advantage among voters last November but has seen some erosion amid his trade war. They’re also acknowledging that, if they’re elected in these new roles, they would be in a much better position to impact the lives of a larger swath of people.
“At this moment, the fight is really in the states, that’s where the front line is,” Sherrill told CNN after a campaign event in Elizabeth, New Jersey. “It’s going to be strong Democratic governors who can best help the nation.”
Sherrill said Democrats need to build the party from the ground up by “taking an expansive view of state power” as they push to make life more affordable for voters and run effective governments. Even as Democrats are working to counter Trump administration policies, the party must continue to keep a focus on kitchen-table issues, she said.
“Sometimes we get caught up in some of the concerns we have — which are huge, huge concerns — about what’s coming up in Washington, but don’t always remind people of the work we’re doing to drive down costs,” Sherrill said.
Democrats flipped 41 House seats in the 2018 midterm elections and elected 67 new members overall. Three cycles later, about half of them are still in office. Several have already sought higher office.
Andy Kim of New Jersey and Elissa Slotkin of Michigan were both elected to the US Senate, while former Reps. Colin Allred of Texas, Debbie Mucarsel-Powell of Florida and Katie Porter of California lost Senate bids last year.
A handful are also running in primaries ahead of next year’s midterm elections. Former Interior Secretary and New Mexico Rep. Deb Haaland is running for governor in her state, as is Porter. Reps. Chris Pappas of New Hampshire, Haley Stevens of Michigan and Angie Craig of Minnesota are all running for Senate.
Dan Sena, the executive director of House Democrats’ campaign arm during the 2018 cycle, described the candidates who ran then as “independent, country first-driven” leaders who at times stood up to their own party. Sena, who is now working with an outside group supporting Sherrill’s campaign, said Democrats should look to the 2018 recruiting formula next year.
“They should be looking for candidates that can support the Democratic Party but look and feel like a different type of Democrat: a Democrat with a record of service, a Democrat that’s a patriot, a Democrat that puts their country first,” he said.
Virginia and New Jersey shifted toward Trump during the 2024 election, but history suggests political headwinds are likely to favor Democrats in the upcoming gubernatorial races. Over the last several decades both states have elected candidates from the party that lost the White House the year before, with two exceptions: Democrat Terry McAuliffe won the 2013 Virginia governor’s race after President Barack Obama was reelected, and Democratic New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy was reelected in 2021 after President Joe Biden won in 2020.
Both seats are open due to the incumbents being term-limited.
Democrats are also hoping to capitalize on high-profile Republican legislation, just as they did in 2018 when Democratic candidates blasted their opponents over their votes backing a failed effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act. This time around, Democrats are pointing to the sweeping tax and spending cuts proposal House Republicans passed last week, which would add work requirements to Medicaid and make deep cuts to food stamps.
“Winning these campaigns is really about being able to explain to voters the ways in which these candidates are going to stand up for them and fight for them,” said Jessica Mackler, the president of EMILY’s List, which works to elect women who support abortion rights and has long backed Spanberger and Sherrill.
Republicans have started preparing their own messaging on the bill, arguing that provisions like no taxes on tips are popular, and that the restrictions on Medicaid benefits will sustain the program for those who need it most.
“It’s going to be imperative you tie them to national trends that are potentially negative in party politics that they’re going to have to deal with in both New Jersey and Virginia,” one GOP strategist who has worked on House campaigns said of Spanberger and the eventual Democratic nominee in New Jersey.
Spanberger and the field of New Jersey Democratic gubernatorial candidates are attempting to rehabilitate the party’s brand when it comes to economic issues. Or, at the very least, not be associated with it.
Patricia Campos-Medina, a labor leader and former New Jersey US Senate candidate backing Sherrill, said affordability is the No. 1 issue for Garden State voters — including housing, transportation and energy bill costs.
“That’s how we counteract this idea that Trump and the Republicans are the only ones who care about the economy and your job,” Campos-Medina said. “Democrats care about the economy and jobs and housing and schools and transportation, and that’s the message that’s going to resonate.”
At events in northern New Jersey, Sherrill repeatedly pointed to her proposals to build more residences to reduce housing costs.
At a recent campaign event at a family-owned drugstore in Mechanicsville, a small, Republican-leaning town outside Richmond, Spanberger laid out her plan to lower health care and prescription drug costs. She also referenced the influence that health care issues had on her decision to first run for Congress.
“Back in 2017 I watched my member of Congress vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act,” Spanberger said. “It was then that I knew that I needed to run against him.”
As she highlighted her plan to boost the affordability of Virginia’s health care as governor, Spanberger said she saw similarities between the 2017 health care debate and the current fight over the far-reaching domestic policy bill.
“Now, unfortunately, we’re seeing much of the same, which is an effort to further degrade a health care system that very frankly and objectively needs improvements,” Spanberger told reporters.
In interviews, Democratic primary voters in both New Jersey and Virginia said they were looking for governors who would serve as a check on the Trump administration. Many expressed frustrations with the Democratic Party, which they said either did not have a clear, unifying message or needed to focus more on affordability issues.
Mary Butler, a 74-year-old retired social worker from Mechanicsville who attended Spanberger’s speech and plans to support her in November, said health care access was deeply important to her because she saw how a lack of access could impact her former clients. Asked to assess national Democrats’ performance, she said the party’s vision wasn’t being communicated well.
“Why isn’t there a really strong message being given — one clear, strong message?” Butler said. “It’s a real question mark for me, I don’t understand it.”
At a campaign stop over Memorial Day weekend, Sherrill gave her stump speech and took questions from a few dozen voters at a pizza shop in Jersey City, where one primary opponent, Steven Fulop, serves as mayor. The questions focused on housing costs, education and how Sherrill, as governor, would respond to parts of the president’s agenda, such as immigration.
Sherrill criticized Republicans, from Ciattarelli to members of Congress, for not pushing back on the president. She likened them to sailors on a ship ignoring impending danger for fear of reprisal over speaking out.
“A lesson I learned in the Navy: The worst thing you can do is to run a ship aground,” Sherrill said. “And you find when you do that, that people on that ship know it’s going to run aground, and they don’t say anything because they’re scared.”
Susan Murphy, a 57-year-old retired theater teacher and Jersey City native, said she will vote for whoever wins the Democratic nomination, but she thought Sherrill seemed to be the strongest to go up against a “MAGA Republican.” She said she viewed Democratic governors as a check on the administration and wondered why national leaders in her party seemed unprepared to take on the Trump administration at the start of his term.
“I know that their hands are tied in terms of holding Trump accountable in many ways,” she said. “My problem is, why weren’t they ready? Why did it take so long?”
David Patel, a 59-year-old business owner from Jersey City who is backing Sherrill, said Democrats “need to learn what people want.”
He said he sometimes gets frustrated with what he described as his party’s tendency to focus on issues “that don’t matter.” Asked what those issues are, he instead pointed to what he would like to hear about: health care, job creation and training, and education.
He said he hoped losing the presidential election would get the party back on track: “I think they got the message.”
