Statewide Elections & the 2025 NJGCA Voter Guide
This year, Election Day is Tuesday, November 4th. It might seem a bit premature to dive into something that is still a few weeks away, but it is an important election cycle and our members should be well-informed before casting their vote.
This year we’ll be electing a new governor, as well as all 80 seats in the state General Assembly. The state Senate is controlled by Democrats with a 25-15 majority, and its seats will next be on the ballot in 2027. With the governor’s race polling extremely close, every vote will matter in this election. While Democrats have a strong 52-28 majority in the Assembly, Republicans are hoping to win back several seats across the state to dramatically shrink their majority.
To help you make an informed decision, we have compiled the latest installment of our On The Road publication, the 2025 NJGCA Voter Guide.
You can read the Voter Guide by CLICKING HERE.
The Guide contains lots of useful details, candidate information, policy positions, and more. And though we cannot reproduce everything here, we did want to highlight a few meaningful notes in this week’s message.
Mikie’s case for victory is basically just that NJ is a blue state that generally prefers Democrats. Chris Christie is the only Republican to win a statewide race in NJ in the last 25 years. Kamala Harris did win 52% of the vote last November, and Trump lost by double digits the other two times he ran. Sherrill is blaming Trump for the high cost of living in the state, pointing to tariffs, inflation, declining employment, and rising utility costs. She is also hoping that Democratic voters will be desperate for the chance to vote against anyone aligned with Trump.
Jack’s case is that Republicans are closing the gap. Trump did 10 points better in NJ in 2024 than in 2020 without really campaigning in the state. When Jack lost to Murphy in 2021, he still did 11 points better than in the previous governor’s race. Two years ago there were 1 million more registered Democrats than Republicans, now it’s down to 800,000. Governors McGreevey, Whitman, and Florio all lost a statewide race once before coming back and winning. The closeness of the last few elections is due to just how expensive it is to live in this state, and now we’ve had 8 years of unified Democratic control in Trenton to blame it on, and 25 years of Democratic control of the state Legislature (versus only 9 months of Trump as President). Voters in much bluer states have elected Republican governors, and voters in ruby red states have elected Democratic governors because they want checks-and-balances, they want someone to control the Legislature and use their veto pen.
If you’d like to learn more about the two candidates and where they stand on all issues, we encourage you to check out their websites at www.jack4nj.com and www.mikiesherrill.com, as well as watching the two debates between the candidates, which you can find on YouTube.
In terms of impact on your business, these state elections are the ones most important. It’s hard to get anything done at the federal level anymore, but at the state level every year we see about 5,000 bills introduced and about 350 become law, including some that have a huge impact on your business.
In using the Voter Guide, first look up which legislative district you now live in, which is based on the county and municipality you live in. Then look up the names of the candidates running, how they voted on the issues that matter to the industry (if they are already in office), and how they responded to our candidate survey (or if they didn’t bother).
We have worked hard to put the Voter Guide together for our members. Please take time to review the information therein, and feel free to reach out to us with any questions.
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