Democrats pour millions into New Jersey governor's race

Democrats are putting millions of dollars onto the airwaves in the New Jersey governor’s race, with an outside group making a new major ad reservation.

Greater Garden State, a super PAC backed by the Democratic Governors Association, is spending $20 million on ads on television, digital and streaming platforms, according to an announcement shared first with NBC News. The ad buy is more than Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy and aligned outside groups spent on ads combined in the 2021 general election.

Democratic Rep. Mikie Sherrill is running to succeed Murphy, who cannot run for re-election because of term limits. Sherrill is competing against Republican Jack Ciattarelli, a former state legislator and the party's 2021 nominee, who easily won the GOP primary with President Donald Trump’s endorsement.

“The DGA is committed to holding New Jersey’s governorship and making sure that voters up and down the Garden State understand the stakes of this election,” DGA political director Jordy Zeigler said in a statement, which linked Ciattarelli to Trump and said Sherrill was focused on the cost of living.

Sherrill, Ciattarelli and outside groups have not spent significant funds on ads since last month’s primaries, according to the ad-tracking firm AdImpact. But the race is expected to attract millions of dollars before it's over. The primaries alone featured $89.8 million spent on ads, with most of the money spent in the crowded Democratic contest.

Nearly $30 million was spent on ads for the general election in 2021, according to AdImpact.

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The new ad buy is being placed early to take advantage of lower advertising rates before the airwaves get more crowded during the fall campaign.

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The New Jersey contest is one of two governor’s races this year, along with Virginia’s. Both races will be closely watched for clues about the political environment ahead of next year’s midterm elections, and both are expected to be competitive.

Trump lost New Jersey by 6 percentage points last year, a 10-point improvement on his 2020 margin. That was the second-largest swing toward Trump in any state. Murphy also faced a competitive race in 2021, when he defeated Ciattarelli by 3 points.

New Jersey voters have tended to elect governors of the opposite party of the president, and it has been more than 60 years since the same party won three consecutive governor’s races.