Gov. Mikie Sherrill says Republicans must “grow a spine” to oppose President Donald Trump and his unpopular policies, after a big Democratic wave in New Jersey and across the country on Election Day. As she was speaking with reporters outside a Princeton coffee shop, protesters were waving posters and showing their opposition to a data center project in North Brunswick. Photo Credit: Ryan Conway/NJ State House News Service
By Ryan Conway and Shohini Mitra
NJ State House News Service
PRINCETON, N.J. – Gov. Mikie Sherrill told reporters Wednesday that the blue tsunami on Election Day was a clear sign that Republicans nationwide need to break away from President Donald Trump and his vastly unpopular and destructive policies.
“What they saw is that there is no path forward for them, or for their party, if they continue down this path. So I’m hopeful that some of them will wake up, if not for the country, then for their own electoral prospects,” Sherrill told reporters outside a Princeton coffee shop. “Grow a spine and stand up to Trump to get some of this done.”
With two years left in Trump’s second term, Sherrill expressed hope that Republicans will finally put a check on his power.
New Jersey voters ousted two Republican House incumbents, Jeff Van Drew and Tom Kean Jr., and re-elected U.S. Sen. Cory Booker in Democratic victories that helped them flip the U.S. House and Senate.
When asked about what voters, who sharply rebuked the current administration, should expect from Democratic majorities in Congress, Sherrill said Democrats should immediately work to make people’s lives more affordable.
“You’re just going to see Democrats take the helm on opportunity, affordability and accountability,” Sherrill said. “Meaning you’re going to see [a bill] laying out exactly where Democrats want to go to drive people’s costs down and to provide effective government, leveraging every tool they have against the president, to make sure they are hopefully… driving affordability for our communities.”
Sherrill also emphasized the need for accountability in Trump’s administration, saying that congressional Democrats must hold hearings to shed light on the executive branch’s corruption.
Also Wednesday, a panel hosted by CNN’s chief media analyst Brian Stelter debriefed the midterm results at Rutgers University’s Eagleton Institute of Politics.
“This is the most wide scale repudiation of administration since probably the 1974 election, post Watergate. There is not one glimmer, there’s not one silver lining,” Stelter said. “There’s nothing.”
Colleen O’Dea, a New Jersey political journalist, broke down the shocking nature of the shifts in areas with longstanding partisan advantages, saying that incumbent Republicans like Kean suffered big losses.
“Democrat Rebecca Bennett won by 16 points,” O’Dea said. “That’s huge. Kean lost in Hunterdon County, which is where I was last night, by nine points. This is just crazy. Hunterdon, by the way, the registration is Republican plus 11 points.”
Democrat Jess Morales Rocketto, a former presidential campaign advisor and current executive director for the Latino organization Maremoto, said voters delivered a clear mandate at the ballot box.
“I would say the mandate is ‘Not Trump.’ The mandate is anti-ICE. The mandate is no war in Iran. And the mandate is to bring down our cost of living. And now, Democrats have to deliver.”
Looking to the future, Rocketto discussed reshaping the political landscape and the current governance’s influence.
“Gen Z and then increasingly Gen Alpha did not come of age in the Obama era. They came of age in the Trump era, and even more than that now, in the AI era,” she said. “Does that just completely obliterate our understanding of politics?”
The panel at Eagleton also turned to the broader implications of the election results for progressive policy making, leaving questions regarding how Democrats should interpret voters’ priorities as well as legislative action.
“Affordability is the number one thing that voters were polling on. But when it comes to progressive legislation, populist ideas, that’s still going to be hammered out and you still have to talk to voters and listen to voters to figure it out,” said Robert Jimison, a Democratic congressional correspondent for The New York Times.
“Was it just purely, ‘We’re done with Trump and we’re done with Trumpism?’ Or what is it that voters really want their lawmakers to deliver on?” Jimison said.
Mike DuHaime, a campaign strategist and former political director of the Republican National Committee, challenged the long-term resilience of this win.
“The Democrats who get reelected in two or four years will be the ones who understand that they didn’t necessarily win. Republicans lost,” DuHaime said.
Despite a big night for Democrats, the path ahead won’t be easy. Several protesters waved posters during Sherrill’s press conference Wednesday, opposing a new data center in North Brunswick.
Tracy Lee, a South Brunswick resident who said she lives within 5,000 feet of the proposed data center on Route 1, said she was going to have to move if the massive project goes through and said she was very disappointed with the governor’s failure to prevent it.
“She’s Blue MAGA, I swear. She’s not helping us. She knows it’s going to be polluted,” Lee said in an interview. “I don’t know what to do, because no one’s listening!”
Ryan Conway is a student at The College Of New Jersey, majoring journalism with a minor in communications.
Shohini Mitra is a senior journalism and media studies student pursuing a minor in digital communication, information, and media at Rutgers University.
