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  • Party soul-searching, the Latino vote, and a South Jersey strategy: Takeaways from Tuesday’s election

    Party soul-searching, the Latino vote, and a South Jersey strategy: Takeaways from Tuesday’s election

    A Navy pilot in New Jersey. A democratic socialist in New York City. Three Pennsylvania jurists who never wanted to hit the campaign trail in the first place.

    The Democrats who scored big wins in Tuesday’s elections came from across the political spectrum and succeeded in disparate campaign environments.

    Blue wave? Democrats build momentum with a sweep of high-profile races in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Virginia.

    The results were momentous for a party hungry for wins in President Donald Trump’s second term. But they are also likely to revive longstanding debates on how the party should present itself to the American people going into the 2026 midterms and 2028 presidential race.

    Should Democrats embrace a bold vision and tack left? Are left-of-center candidates with bipartisan appeal still the way to win statewide races? Or could the party simply embrace the reality of being a big-tent party?

    Here are five takeaways from Tuesday’s elections, including the state of play for both parties’ soul-searching exercises.

    Democrats gained momentum, but received no clear signs about the future of the party

    The energy is clearly there.

    Turnout soared on Tuesday, despite being an off-year election, and Democrats won by surprisingly large margins up and down the ballot.

    Even Montgomery County, where there were no competitive elections for county offices, saw its highest-ever off-year turnout at 50.7% of registered voters, and Democrats flipped every contested school board race.

    Turnout is brisk in Pennsylvania and New Jersey as voters sound off on Trump, crime, and taxes

    At the top of the ticket, New Jersey’s Mikie Sherrill and Virginia’s Abigail Spanberger, both U.S. representatives with national security backgrounds, ran up the scores in their gubernatorial races while portraying themselves as pragmatists.

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    Zohran Mamdani, meanwhile, handily defeated former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the New York City mayor’s race by promising radical change and progressive policy solutions.

    So where does that leave Democrats as they try to find a recipe for success in next year’s congressional races?

    For Philadelphia’s progressive District Attorney Larry Krasner, who won a third term Tuesday, the answer is clear.

    “There’s a new politics,” Krasner said Wednesday. “It’s pretty clear that the American people, Philadelphians, are tired of insiders who promise them things they don’t do. They’re tired of political dynasties.”

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    Democratic strategist Brendan McPhillips, who has worked for progressive candidates as well as Joe Biden’s and Kamala Harris’ campaigns in Pennsylvania, said the party should embrace the ideological diversity of its constituencies.

    “People have tried to ask this question of who represents the soul of the party, and I just think it’s a bad question,” he said. “The party is a huge tent, and last night proves you can run for Democratic office in New York City and New Jersey and Bucks County and Erie, Pa., and each of those races can look entirely different.”

    Democrats made gains with Latino voters

    One of the more worrying signs for Democrats in the Trump era has been the president’s increasing popularity among Latino voters.

    They flipped that narrative Tuesday.

    After 10 months of aggressive U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids under Trump that are seen by many in the Latino community as indiscriminate and cruel, Democrats appear to have undone some of Trump’s gains in what has long been a blue constituency.

    In New Jersey, the two counties where Sherrill made the biggest gains compared with Harris in the 2024 presidential election were Passaic and Hudson, both of which are more than 40% Hispanic, according to the U.S. Census.

    Mikie Sherrill was underestimated. So was the extent of anti-Trump sentiment in New Jersey.

    Sherrill won Hudson by 50 percentage points, which represents a 22-point swing from Harris. And she won Passaic by 15 percentage points after Trump surprisingly carried the county with a 3-point margin in 2024.

    In Philadelphia, Krasner won eight wards that the more conservative Patrick Dugan — Krasner’s opponent in both the general election and the Democratic primary — had won in their first round in May.

    All were in or near the Lower Northeast, and the biggest swing came in the heavily Latino 7th Ward, which includes parts of Fairhill and Kensington. Krasner’s share of the vote there grew from 46% in the primary to 86% in the general.

    It’s really hard to unseat Pennsylvania judges

    Only one Pennsylvania Supreme Court justice since 1968 has failed to win a retention election, in which voters face a yes-or-no decision on whether to give incumbents new 10-year terms, rather than a choice between candidates.

    Tuesday’s results will be discouraging for anyone hoping to increase that number soon.

    All three Pa. Supreme Court justices are retained following a historically expensive race

    Hoping to break liberals’ 5-2 majority on the state’s highest court, Republicans spent big in an attempt to oust three justices who were originally elected as Democrats. Democratic groups then poured in their own money to defend the incumbents.

    In the end, Justices Christine Donohue, Kevin Dougherty, and David Wecht all won by more than 25 percentage points.

    Ciattarelli’s South Jersey strategy failed

    In his third attempt to become governor, Republican Jack Ciattarelli bet big on South Jersey, the more conservative but less populous part of the Garden State.

    It didn’t work.

    In his 2021 campaign against Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy, Ciattarelli carried Atlantic, Cape May, Cumberland, Gloucester, and Salem Counties with a combined 56.8% of the vote. Trump then went on to sweep all five counties last year.

    But on Tuesday, Ciattarelli performed 8 percentage points worse in the region, giving Sherrill a narrow lead in South Jersey, where she won three of the five counties south of Camden.

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    Republicans now face their own soul-searching question: How to win without Trump?

    In 2024, Trump’s coattails helped Republicans win control of Congress and other elected offices across the country — including in two Pennsylvania swing districts.

    With the president in his second and final term, how will the GOP win without him on the ballot?

    For Jim Worthington, the Trump megadonor and owner of the Newtown Athletic Club in Bucks County, Tuesday’s results show that the GOP needs to do more work on the ground if it wants to succeed without the man who has dominated Republican politics since 2015.

    Elections, he said, are “not about the policies as much they’re just turnout. Red team, blue team.”

    Democrats sweep Bucks County law enforcement races, ousting a sheriff who sought controversial ICE partnership

    The blue team won Tuesday, he said, because the red team didn’t do enough of the legwork needed to get its voters to cast mail ballots and to drive in-person turnout on Election Day. Worthington said the results left him concerned about Republican Treasurer Stacy Garrity’s chances of unseating Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro next year.

    “If we don’t get a robust vote-by-mail, paid-for program, it’s going to be very difficult, very difficult, if not impossible for Stacy Garrity to win,” Worthington said. “During this whole 2025 year when we could have been building this toward 2026, we lost a year because we didn’t do it.”

    Staff writer Anna Orso contributed to this article.

    This suburban content is produced with support from the Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Editorial content is created independently of the project donors. Gifts to support The Inquirer’s high-impact journalism can be made at inquirer.com/donate. A list of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org/supporters.

  • Chester County officials promise to investigate poll book omissions, after they’ve finished counting the votes

    Chester County officials promise to investigate poll book omissions, after they’ve finished counting the votes

    The Chester County Board of Commissioners apologized to voters Wednesday after an error forced independent and third-party voters to cast provisional ballots through much of Election Day.

    Speaking at their twice-monthly board meeting, Democratic Commissioners Josh Maxwell and Marian Moskowitz and Republican Commissioner Eric Roe promised to determine how the error was made and ensure it doesn’t happen again.

    “Know that we will look into this. We need to finish the election first,” Maxwell said.

    Election officials in Chester County sent poll books to precincts that included only the names of registered Republicans and Democrats, omitting all other voters.

    The error meant poll workers had no way to ensure voters not affiliated with a major party were eligible when they arrived to vote Tuesday morning. As a result, those voters cast provisional ballots until supplemental poll books were delivered to each precinct by around 3:45 in the afternoon.

    Provisional ballots will be counted, but they are counted slower as election officials must first verify they were cast by an eligible voter who had not already voted.

    The county left polling places open for an additional two hours Tuesday, allowing voters who arrived after 8 p.m. to cast provisional ballots. About 75,000 voters in Chester County are not registered with either party. The error likely affected far fewer people, as many voters had cast mail ballots and odd-year elections tend to have lower turnout.

    To get through the day, Maxwell said, Philadelphia’s election office delivered a “truckload” of provisional ballots to the suburban county.

    While some online have called for the resignation or firing of Chester County’s director of voting services, Karen Barsoum, Maxwell said discussions of personnel matters were premature.

    “We have a lot of very good people who are very well-intentioned who set a very high standard for themselves,” Maxwell said, adding that the county had had to increase security for some staff members in response to online threats.

    Roe and Moskowitz each thanked poll workers who managed a chaotic, and longer than normal, day at the polls.

    County officials said they would work to better understand how the error occurred after they have finished tallying votes and certifying the election.

    “We will be working on it,” Roe said. “We will get to the bottom of it. Accountability will come.”

    This suburban content is produced with support from the Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Editorial content is created independently of the project donors. Gifts to support The Inquirer’s high-impact journalism can be made at inquirer.com/donate. A list of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org/supporters.

  • Democrats sweep Delaware County Council election centered on rising property taxes

    Democrats sweep Delaware County Council election centered on rising property taxes

    Democrats swept Delaware County Council elections for the fifth consecutive election, further solidifying their dominance in the former Republican stronghold in the suburbs.

    Council member Richard Womack won a second term Tuesday, while his running mate, County Controller Joanne Phillips, was elected to her first term on the council. The Democrats overcame a Republican campaign focused on rising taxes under the council’s current leadership.

    In statements early Wednesday morning, the Democrats thanked their supporters.

    “I will continue to work hard and fight for the residents in our County. I look forward to working together with all parties to make Delaware County one of the strongest counties in the Commonwealth,” Womack said in a statement.

    With all but one precinct reporting Wednesday, Republican challengers Brian Burke and Liz Piazza each trailed Womack and Phillips by roughly 50,000 votes.

    In a statement Wednesday, Frank Agovino, the chair of the Delaware County GOP, said it appeared local issues were a “secondary concern” for Democrats this year.

    “The State wide retention initiative was uncharted waters and it feels as though Dem turnout was positively impacted. Additionally, the Unrealistic disdain for the President from the majority of Democrats was also an undeniable factor,” Agovino wrote.

    Democrats have held all five seats on the Delaware County Council since 2020, when the party took control of the county for the first time since the Civil War. Democrats flipped the county as part of a national trend of suburbs shifting left, which was accelerated during President Donald Trump’s first term in office. With Tuesday’s results, they will keep their supermajority for the next two years.

    In the years since Democrats took control in Delaware County, they say they have worked to enhance county services and repair infrastructure. That has included establishing a health department — Delaware County was the largest county in Pennsylvania without one at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic — and de-privatizing the county prison following a series of scandals.

    Last year, the county increased property taxes 23%, citing the loss of federal pandemic relief dollars and inflation driving up salaries. Republicans made that increase the base of their campaign, telling voters that the Democrats were overspending and that more tax increases were on the way.

    Republicans wanted voters to give the GOP a voice on the board, even though the party wouldn’t have the majority, to push back on budgetary decisions and hold the Democrats accountable.

    But in the heavily Democratic county, that message was not enough to sway the independent and Democratic voters Republicans needed to win seats. Instead, voters demonstrated continued trust in the current county leadership.

    “I truly respect Richard and Joanne as members of Council and hope they will listen to the voices of our residents and help bring to light some of their concerns,” Piazza said in a statement Wednesday.

    On Election Day, Donald and Esther Newton, a Chester couple who have been married for more than 55 years, said they believed it was about time their city received more care and investment through property taxes.

    “Our infrastructure needs to be fixed, and that takes money,” Esther Newton said.

    Democrats swept all countywide races Tuesday. District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer, who was among the first Democrats to win countywide office in Delaware County, won a seat on Delaware County Court. He will have to step down from his current role to take the seat.

    Staff writer Nate File contributed to this article.

    This suburban content is produced with support from the Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Editorial content is created independently of the project donors. Gifts to support The Inquirer’s high-impact journalism can be made at inquirer.com/donate. A list of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org/supporters.

  • Downingtown elects Erica Deuso, Pennsylvania’s first openly transgender mayor

    Downingtown elects Erica Deuso, Pennsylvania’s first openly transgender mayor

    Erica Deuso will be Pennsylvanias first openly transgender mayor. She won Tuesday’s contest to lead Downingtown after a campaign focused on bread-and-butter local issues in the face of attacks to her identity.

    The longtime Democratic advocate who works in management at a pharmaceutical company earned 64% of the vote as of Wednesday morning defeating Republican Rich Bryant who had 35% of the vote to serve as the next mayor of Downingtown, a Chester County borough of roughly 8,000 people.

    “Voters chose hope, decency, and a community where every neighbor matters,” Deuso said in a statement at 1:30 a.m. Wednesday. “I am honored to be elected as Pennsylvania’s first openly transgender mayor. I carry that responsibility with care and with purpose.”

    Deuso joins a small but growing rank of transgender officials in Pennsylvania and nationwide. There are 52 out transgender elected officials across the United States and three in Pennsylvania, all who govern at the local level , according to the Victory Institute, the research arm of the Victory Fund, which supports LGBTQ+ candidates and backed Deuso.

    While her gender identity attracted attention, and online vitriol, Deuso’s campaign didn’t dwell on it. Instead she prioritized public safety, sustainable growth and community in the historic borough now home to Victory Brewing.

    She ran with the support of the borough’s last two mayors, Democrats Phil Dague and County Commissioner Josh Maxwell.

    Bryant, a retired cybersecurity expert, argued he was better experienced for the job, which primarily leads the borough police department. But Bryant faced accusations of bigotry as Deuso posted screenshots online of her opponent making misogynistic and transphobic remarks on X, (Bryant said 90% of the posts were AI-generated, but offered no proof.)

    In a statement, Bryant congratulated Deuso and pledged to continue working to serve the community.

    “To those who voted differently, I respect your decision and share your hope for a stronger, safer, and more united Downingtown. I will continue to serve, to listen, and to advocate for responsible growth, fiscal transparency, and accountable local leadership,” he said.

    This suburban content is produced with support from the Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Editorial content is created independently of the project donors. Gifts to support The Inquirer’s high-impact journalism can be made at inquirer.com/donate. A list of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org/supporters.

  • Democrats sweep Bucks County law enforcement races, ousting a sheriff who sought controversial ICE partnership

    Democrats sweep Bucks County law enforcement races, ousting a sheriff who sought controversial ICE partnership

    Democrats swept two law enforcement races in Bucks County, ousting the incumbents and signaling the swing county has soured on President Donald Trump just a year after voting for him.

    Democrat Danny Ceisler, an Army veteran who held a public safety role in Gov. Josh Shapiro’s administration, led Republican Sheriff Fred Harran by 12 percentage points with all precincts reporting Wednesday morning. The sheriff race centered on Harran’s controversial decision to partner his agency with ICE as Trump ramps up immigration enforcement nationwide.

    And former Bucks County Solicitor Joe Khan led Republican District Attorney Jen Schorn by eight percentage points. Democrats believe Khan is the first member of their party to ever be elected to the office.

    Bucks County Democrats declared victory just after midnight Wednesday morning — sweeping every countywide race. The victories came in what appeared to be a blue wave election as voters rejected Republican candidates in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Virginia.

    “What’s going on with our federal government is not normal, and voters saw that creeping into local offices, and they overwhelmingly rejected it,” Ceisler said Wednesday. “Bucks County doesn’t let extremism come inside.”

    The hotly contested Bucks County races centered on some of the most contentious issues in national politics — Trump, crime, and immigration. Democrats sought to paint the incumbents as Trumpian ideologues, while Republicans warned voters of an influx of “Philly crime” if Democrats took office, even as the violent crime rate in the city has dropped from its pandemic peak.

    Voters opted for a change, delivering both offices to Democrats and, as result, spelling the end to a controversial partnership between the sheriff’s office and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

    Bucks was the only county in the Philadelphia area to go for Trump last year and will be a key battleground in 2026 when Shapiro runs for reelection. Tuesday’s wins will give Democrats momentum going into the midterms.

    Democrats, Khan said, had to work to prove to voters they could be trusted with public safety. They were aided by a favorable dynamic as voters rejected Trumpism.

    “It was a campaign not about attacking somebody else but, really, making really clear that we deserve better than what we’ve got,” Khan said.

    Voters at the polls persistently expressed frustration with Trump, and a sense that anyone from his party should not be trusted in office.

    “They’re subject to his control, regardless of how they feel on issues,” said Stephanie Kraft of Doylestown. “And that affects everything, from our local courts on up to the higher courts in the state.”

    Harran attributed the GOP losses to Democratic enthusiasm for retaining three left-leaning state Supreme Court justices.

    “We woke a sleeping giant. When I say ‘we,’ I don’t mean me; I mean the Republican Party at the state level,” Harran said Wednesday.

    “I also worry for Bucks County,” he added. “We’re going to have Philadelphia policies and politics in Bucks County, and that’s extremely dangerous.”

    Democrats control the Bucks County Board of Commissioners, but Trump narrowly won Bucks last year, marking the first time the purple county had gone for a Republican in the presidential race since the 1980s. There are more registered Republicans than Democrats in Bucks County, but Democrats hoped the president’s low approval ratings, and Harran’s decision to partner with ICE, would drive angry voters to the polls in high numbers.

    Joe Khan

    The effort succeeded, indicating that Bucks voters are already disenchanted with the president they voted for just a year ago. The vote may set off alarm bells among Republicans as they prepare for next year’s election, when Republican Treasurer Stacy Garrity seeks to oust Shapiro and Republican U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick stands for reelection.

    The Democratic victory is “on everything that Trump is doing to undermine the institutions of democracy, but it’s also on Trump’s failure to really reverse inflation,” said State Sen. Steve Santarsiero, the chair of the Bucks County Democratic Party.

    Even so, for several voters, Harran’s partnership with ICE was the final straw.

    Jill Johnson worried it would result in the targeting of Latino citizens, including her half-Mexican son, who is away at college.

    “My biggest fear is that someone in a mask is going to come up and grab him because they think he’s here illegally,” Johnson said. “It’s scary. These are law-abiding people who have done nothing wrong.”

    The partnership, which recently became active after months of planning, provoked backlash, including a lawsuit, public demonstrations outside the courthouse, and a repudiation by the Democratic-led board of commissioners.

    Ceisler said Wednesday that he will issue a moratorium barring deputies’ cooperation with ICE on his first day in office. From there, he said, he will figure out how to disentangle the sheriff’s office from the agreement signed by his predecessor.

    For his part, Harran said Wednesday that Ceisler will “have to answer for a person who becomes victimized by an individual that should have been deported. And he’ll have to sleep with that, and it’ll be on his head, not mine.”

    Officials with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement declined to comment.

    Harran, an outspoken Republican who endorsed Trump last year and frequently clashes with the Democratic commissioners, was elected sheriff in 2021 after more than a decade leading Bensalem’s police department.

    The Republican has expanded the role of the sheriff’s department, adding a K-9 unit and partnering with immigration officials, but faced criticism that he was failing to complete the basic duties of his job, such as executing warrants and protecting the courthouse.

    Ceisler advocated taking politics out of the office, saying he would focus on domestic violence and pledging to end the partnership with ICE. He argued his experience in the Army and in a public safety leadership post under Shapiro prepared him to serve as sheriff — though Harran argued Ceisler would be unprepared for the job, having never worked in a sheriff’s office or police department.

    “Being the sheriff isn’t on-the-job training,” Harran said at a Bristol polling place Tuesday. “You need knowledge and experience.”

    Ceisler said he had spoken to Harran after the results came in and the incumbent promised to assist with a smooth transition.

    Schorn, a veteran Bucks County prosecutor, lost in her bid for a full term after being appointed district attorney last year when her predecessor became a judge.

    She had been an assistant district attorney in the county since 1999, prosecuting some of the county’s most high-profile cases. When she became district attorney, Schorn started a task force in the county to investigate internet crimes against children.

    Khan, a former county solicitor and federal prosecutor, argued Schorn ran the office under “Trump’s blueprint” and criticized her decisions not to recuse herself when a Republican committeeperson was charged with voter fraud and not to prosecute alleged child abuse at Jamison Elementary School.

    Schorn has said she was unable to discuss the details of the Jamison Elementary School case due to rules governing prosecutors, but Khan argued her explanations were insufficient as parents sought answers.

    Meanwhile, Schorn accused her opponent, who had unsuccessfully run for Philadelphia district attorney and Pennsylvania attorney general, of playing politics when he understood the rules prosecutors were bound by.

    Schorn performed slightly better than her GOP counterparts in Bucks County on Tuesday. But, while many voters said they had no issue with Schorn’s policies, her political party was a turnoff.

    “I just feel the Democrats would be better right now; I’m down on all Republicans,” said Marybeth Vinkler, a Doylestown voter who said she had no problems with how Schorn had run the district attorney’s office. “Everything happening in D.C. is trickling down around us.”

    Schorn did not immediately comment on the results Wednesday.

    Jim Worthington, who has run pro-Trump organizations in Bucks County, said Republicans failed to turn out voters on Election Day even as data showed Democrats held a significant lead on mail voting ahead of Tuesday.

    “This is where the GOP was asleep at the wheel,” Worthington said.

    Traditionally, voters trust Republicans more with law and order. The resounding victories for Democrats defied that trend.

    “We now have an obligation to deliver and to show that Democrats can lead on the issue of safety,” Ceisler said.

    “The ball is in our hands, and we’re ready to run with it.”

    Staff writer Jeff Gammage contributed to this article.

    This suburban content is produced with support from the Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Editorial content is created independently of the project donors. Gifts to support The Inquirer’s high-impact journalism can be made at inquirer.com/donate. A list of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org/supporters.

  • New Jersey will vote for a new governor. But the stakes go far beyond the Garden State.

    New Jersey will vote for a new governor. But the stakes go far beyond the Garden State.

    The eyes of the nation are on the Garden State.

    New Jersey voters will head to the polls tomorrow as America watches whether Republican Jack Ciattarelli pulls off an upset or Democratic U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill holds the line and gives her party something to celebrate ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

    The results of the tight race could be a barometer, nationally, for which party has an edge, and signal the type of messaging and candidate that can win over New Jersey voters in an increasingly purple state.

    The race has attracted national attention and resources from both parties — especially Democrats who see the seat as a critical opportunity to build momentum and safeguard the state from the policies of President Donald Trump.

    Republicans, meanwhile, see potential for a huge pickup in Ciattarelli’s third run for the office — this time buoyed by the momentum of a grassroots MAGA movement after Trump’s 2024 win — and the hope that some Democrats uninspired by Sherrill stay home or give the Republican a shot.

    Jack Ciattarelli looks to South Jersey to flip NJ red

    Ciattarelli spent his final campaign week rallying with Puerto Rican voters in Passaic County and taking his “It’s Time” bus tour around the state. He held meet-and-greets, rallies, and diner stops over the weekend in Monmouth, Ocean, Union, and Bergen Counties.

    Sherrill, who would be only the second woman elected governor in the state should she prevail on Tuesday, rallied with former President Barack Obama on Saturday in Newark and with Sens. Cory Booker and Andy Kim on Sunday in Camden and Mount Laurel Township. The events followed a week that included a “Driving Down Costs” bus tour and appearances with former Transportation Secretary and presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg and Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle L. Parker.

    All eyes are on Mikie Sherrill to hold the line in a must-win contest for NJ Democrats

    Along with her promise to take on landlords “colluding to raise rents” and to tackle pharmaceutical prices, Sherrill reiterated her campaign promise to freeze utility rate hikes on her first day in office at the rally with Obama on Saturday.

    “New Jersey, I’m not playing,” she told the audience. “I’m not writing a strongly worded letter and I’m not starting up a working group. I am not doing a 10-year study. I’m declaring a state of emergency.”

    For decades, New Jerseyans had voted blue at the national level while electing Republicans to the governor’s mansion. Democrats have a voter registration advantage of about 850,000 voters in New Jersey, but 2.2 million voters are registered unaffiliated. And GOP registrations have outpaced Democratic ones since the 2024 presidential election, when Trump swung the state significantly redder, losing by only 6 points.

    Unaffiliated voters could swing the N.J. governor’s race. Here’s what some of them think of the candidates.

    The last gubernatorial battle in 2021 shocked many in the state when Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy won reelection by a slim, 3-point margin.

    A record amount of money has poured into the race in the expensive media market that overlaps with Philadelphia and New York City.

    Most polls have shown Sherrill with a single-digit edge, a lead that is within the margin of error in many of the surveys. However, a Quinnipiac University poll released Oct. 30 showed Sherrill leading by 8 points, outside of the survey’s margin of error. Emerson College, a respected firm found the race tied in two separate polls, one from September and another released on Thursday.

    Ashley Koning, the director of the Rutgers Center for Public Interest Polling, said either candidate has a “very plausible path to victory.”

    Democratic candidate for governor U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill poses with members of the Princeton College Democrats as she appears at a Mercer County Democrats GOTV Rally at the Mercer Oaks Golf Course in West Windsor Thursday, Oct. 23, 2025. From left are: Julian Danoff; Michelle Miao; and Paul Wang. (The group’s motto: “Bringing blue values to the Orange Bubble.”)

    Dueling headwinds

    There are dueling headwinds at play in the contest for New Jersey governor, too. Both Trump and Murphy are unpopular with about half of New Jersey voters. New Jersey hasn’t elected the same party to a third term for the governorship since 1961, but Republicans have also not won the office while their party has held the White House since 1985.

    Once the votes are tallied in Tuesday’s election, New Jersey political history will be made either way.

    Democratic leaders have projected confidence despite tight polls and some concern Sherrill’s cautious campaign could fail to motivate voters.

    Ken Martin, the chair of the Democratic National Committee, said he expects the race to be a close win for Democrats, noting “a win is a win.”

    He resisted the critiques from some fellow Democrats that Sherrill played her campaign too safe, “in an era of brash bravado, machismo, and Donald Trump, and these candidates basically saying whatever the hell they want.”

    “I think what she’s been doing is putting out a pretty compelling message to New Jerseyans and campaigning everywhere to make sure that they understand what she’s focused on,” he said.

    The party’s vice chair, Pa. State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta (D., Philadelphia) predicted a good night for Democrats in New Jersey. “There’s that famous saying that ‘Trenton makes, the world takes,’ and I think Trenton is going to make a lot of momentum that we are going to take into 2026 and beyond.”

    “I feel it, you know, I feel it on the ground,” said Sen. Andy Kim (D., N.J.) who campaigned with Sherrill in between fielding questions from fellow Democrats in Washington about what the race looks like back home.

    “Everyone I talked to knows what’s at stake,” Kim said.

    Chris Russell, Ciattarelli’s political strategist, argued that Ciattarelli has garnered support from voters who have traditionally supported Democrats by delivering them a clearer message on affordability.

    “We put a significant amount of time and resources, driven and led by Jack, to be present in minority communities like the Hispanic community and the Black community, and we believe that effort is going to pay off,” he said.

    Republican candidate for governor Jack Ciattarelli poses with members of the Pascucci family as he greets supporters at Palermo’s Pizza in Bordentown Monday, Oct.13, 2025 while campaigning in South Jersey.

    ‘A totally different vibe’

    As the candidates made their final burst of media appearances in the countdown to Election Day, Ciattarelli, in a town hall with Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Thursday night, said the Republican campaign energy “is electric.” Ciattarelli said he was encouraged by early-vote and vote-by-mail numbers, which, while trailing Democrats, had surpassed 2021 GOP turnout numbers.

    “We go after those one out of four Republicans … who typically only vote in presidential years,” Ciattarelli said on Hannity’s program. “We’ve done a magnificent job, our local Republican organizations have, in getting those people to vote by mail or vote early.”

    State Sen. Latham Tiver, a South Jersey Republican, said Ciattarelli’s campaign stops are a “totally different vibe” than his last run in 2021. He recalls Ciattarelli introducing himself table to table, but now, Tiver said when the candidate enters the room, people flock to him.

    “Jack’s doing everything he can. … He’s pounding the pavement, he’s meeting more and more people, and we’re all out there doing the same thing for him,” Tiver said.

    In an otherwise sleepy election cycle, New Jersey and Virginia, also electing a governor this month, have the spotlight. Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court retention races have also garnered an outsized amount of attention for a judicial race and could be a bellwether for one of the nation’s largest battlegrounds.

    As the candidates make their final push to lead New Jersey, the outcome will likely depend on who shows up at the polls Tuesday.

    Both campaigns have motivated bases, but the election could come down to the less engaged and whether they decide to vote. Despite a record amount of spending in the state, only about 2% of voters remained undecided in polls.

    “I don’t think people give enough credit — pollsters, political wonks — to just how burnt out the average American is,” said Jackie Cornell, who previously ran field operations for Obama’s campaign in New Jersey.

    “They just don’t want to hear anything about any of this any more, and I worry that will be the deterrent more so than anything else.”

  • Erica Deuso’s campaign to be Pa.’s first trans mayor isn’t about that. It’s ‘about the neighbors.’

    Erica Deuso’s campaign to be Pa.’s first trans mayor isn’t about that. It’s ‘about the neighbors.’

    By most measures, Erica Deuso’s campaign for mayor of Downingtown is unremarkable.

    She spends Saturday mornings greeting residents at the farmers market and her weekend days knocking on doors in the Chester County borough. Most of the time, she’s talking about traffic and community events.

    Nevertheless, the effort is groundbreaking.

    If she is elected in the Democratic-leaning borough, Deuso would be the first openly transgender person elected mayor in Pennsylvania. She would do so as President Donald Trump’s administration pursues policies that limit public life for transgender residents and as Democrats’ vocal support for the community wanes in the aftermath of the 2024 election.

    Democratic supporters pose with current Downingtown Mayor Phil Dague, center, Chester County Commissioner Josh Maxwell, center left, and mayoral candidate Erica Deuso, center right.

    For most voters, though, those facts didn’t even register.

    Deuso, who works in management at a pharmaceutical company, has lived in Downingtown for 18 years.

    She is a committeewoman in the local Democratic Party, and board member for Emerge Pennsylvania, which trains women and LGBTQ+ people to run for office. Her platform centers on traffic control, domestic violence, community engagement, and sustainable development.

    The Downingtown mayor has relatively limited power, overseeing the police department and acting as a tiebreaking vote on borough council. Deuso has promised not to sign an agreement between Downingtown police and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and said she wants to work on enhancing mental health services for officers while expanding their reach in the community to address concerns over traffic violations and e-bikes.

    As she knocked on doors on a Saturday morning in October, Deuso’s gender identity rarely came up in her interactions with voters.

    “I’m not running on being trans, that’s not something I ever do or ever wanted to do. I wanted to make it about the neighbors,” Deuso said. “It’s the other side making it about who I am, my identity.”

    Going door-to-door looking for votes in Downingtown in October, Erica Deuso meets Nicole Flood at her door.

    The historic nature of her campaign has likely driven attention and funds to the race. She has earned endorsements from several organizations that back LGBTQ+ and women candidates. And she’s received donations from outside the state and outside Chester County, including a $3,000 donation from Greater Than PAC, which supports progressive women.

    But a scan of comments in community Facebook pages shows her identity has also driven more vitriol.

    “There are people who refuse to use my correct name or pronouns, they’ve deadnamed me, all those sorts of things. But it’s been 16 years since I transitioned; I don’t really care,” Deuso said. But she’s mindful that LGBTQ+ youth are watching her. She engages in some of the posts, but not all of them.

    “I want to handle it with grace.”

    Those efforts are already influencing at least one local teen. Nicole Bastida-Moyer, a 39-year-old voter, told Deuso her candidacy had inspired her 14-year-old daughter to volunteer to help other students with their mental health. Both she and her daughter are pansexual.

    “She deals with a lot of hate,” Bastida-Moyer said through tears about her daughter.

    “Having Erica’s voice, it means a lot,” Bastida-Moyer said.

    Nicole Bastida-Moyer gets a hug from Downingtown mayoral candidate Erica Deuso while campaigning in October.

    Impact on voters

    Deuso responds to comments on her Facebook page and other groups occasionally. She said she tends to do so only when she thinks a true conversation can come of it.

    Door-knocking in her neighborhood, Deuso encountered just one voter who appeared to be hostile to her because of her gender identity. When Deuso approached one house, a woman came to the door and glanced at the candidate and her fliers through the screen door without opening it.

    “I’m not voting for him,” the woman said. “For who?” Deuso asked as the woman turned and walked away.

    Episodes like this are relatively rare, Deuso said

    “People are generally much nicer in person than online,” said Jenn Fenn, who managed U.S. Rep. Chrissy Houlahan’s 2024 reelection campaign in a district that includes Downingtown.

    Deuso’s opponent, Republican Rich Bryant, says he doesn’t condone those who attack Deuso based on her identity.

    But Deuso has shared several screenshots on social media that appear to show Bryant insulting transgender women and making misogynistic remarks about cisgender women. At a canvass launch at the local farmers market, the township’s current mayor, Democrat Phil Dague, referenced these posts while comparing Bryant to Trump.

    Current Downingtown Mayor Phil Dague talks with supporters for Erica Deuso listening at right. Saturday October 18, 2025.

    Bryant claimed 90% of these posts are AI-generated but refused to say which posts are real and which are fake.

    “I don’t like mud-slinging misinformation,” Bryant said. “I try to stay focused on what’s good for Downingtown.”

    Rich Bryant is running as a Republican for Downingtown mayor.

    He sought to present himself as better experienced than Deuso to be mayor, contending his career in cybersecurity has prepared him for the mayor’s primary duty of overseeing the local police department.

    Alice Sullivan, an 80-year-old neighbor and donor to Deuso, had noticed some of the nastiness on social media and said she was voting for Deuso because, unlike her opponent, she wasn’t a “bigot.”

    She lamented the online attacks against Deuso as disappointing — but unsurprising. The candidate’s gender identity shouldn’t matter, insisted Sullivan, who has lived in Downingtown for decades.

    “Other people’s lives, genders, whatever is not my business,” she said.

    Josh Maxwell, a Democratic county commissioner and former Downingtown mayor who had joined Deuso to knock doors, asked if Sullivan thought others would disagree in the historically Catholic community. But the people who cared, Sullivan argued, are “not going to vote Democrat anyway.”

    “There might be some,” she said. “I don’t know very many.”

    Campaigning in the west end of Downingtown Erica Deuso greets Alice Sullivan on Oct. 18.

    As Deuso walked door to door, her conversations focused on local and community issues. She greeted every dog she saw and spoke to their owners about their safety concerns — drivers had been racing down quiet neighborhood streets — and their concerns about the community. Deuso is proposing a program to offer hotel rooms for one night to those facing domestic violence.

    She also made it clear that she would be a resource, even on issues that went beyond the mayor’s official duties. She showed one voter how she had started a youth-driven art project at a recent township festival. And pointed to a home that, just weeks prior, she’d brought a misdelivered package to on behalf of a voter.

    For weeks, Raul Hurtado, Deuso’s neighbor who immigrated from Colombia in the 1990s, has been rolling down his windows when he sees Deuso, telling her he’s voting for her.

    “She is from this town, my neighbor, and we need someone to help us,” Hurtado told The Inquirer.

    If she’s elected, Deuso told Hurtado, her goal is to be available to all residents through office hours at Borough Hall.

    “We can have a face-to-face discussion,” she said. “Not through your car window.”

    This suburban content is produced with support from the Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Editorial content is created independently of the project donors. Gifts to support The Inquirer’s high-impact journalism can be made at inquirer.com/donate. A list of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org/supporters.

  • Shapiro’s view that America is ready for a Jewish president hasn’t changed, Times says

    Shapiro’s view that America is ready for a Jewish president hasn’t changed, Times says

    Gov. Josh Shapiro told the New York Times in an article appearing Monday his opinion that a Jewish person could become president has not changed since he first voiced it a year ago.

    The article referenced a statement Shapiro made to the Times last year that “speaking broadly, absolutely” America could elect a Jewish president in his lifetime.

    The Monday article stated: “This month he said his view was unchanged.”

    Shapiro has never publicly confirmed he’s interested in running for president, though speculation has long followed him.

    While he has been largely untested on the national stage, Shapiro is often listed among the Democrats likely to make a run for the presidency in 2028.

    Despite that, the April arson attack, denounced by many as antisemitic, at the governor’s mansion against Shapiro and his family on Passover as they slept shook some people’s “confidence in the idea that the country was ready for leaders like Mr. Shapiro,” the Times wrote.

    In fact, Shapiro told the Times, he spoke with his family about whether holding elected office was worth the risk of political violence, which Americans believe is on the rise, according to a survey released last week by the Pew Research Center.

    Shapiro concluded: “If I leave because violence pushed us out or scared us, then those who want to perpetuate political violence win.

    “I’ve got to stay. I’ve got to show that we’re not afraid.”

    Taking that stand, however, is not getting easier.

    “It’s gotten hotter and hotter and more and more dangerous,” Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, herself the target of a kidnapping plot, told the Times.

    Cody Balmer, 38, the man accused of setting the governor’s mansion ablaze, pleaded guilty on Oct. 14 to attempted murder and related crimes. Sentenced to 25 to 50 years in prison, Balmer said he intended to attack Shapiro with a hammer that night.

    Photos released by the Pennsylvania State Police and seen on YouTube showed a soot-covered chandelier, singed walls, a blackened carpet, melted tables, burned furniture, and a damaged grand piano.

    Since the attack, Shapiro has spoken with other elected leaders and those considering running for office, offering personal guidance to those victimized by political violence, and he talked with Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota after the former state House speaker, Melissa Hortman, and her husband were assassinated, the Times wrote.

    “Knowing that as you’re doing that work that I consider to be noble, that it comes with a risk to you and your family,” he told the Times, “that’s a tension that is a challenge to work through.”

    “It is one of the reasons why I’m so motivated to speak out against political violence,” Shapiro added. To “try and take the temperature down so that good people want to serve.”

    Regarding potential bias against religion, the governor told the Times that Americans “respect faith, even if they don’t practice it, and want to have a deep relationship with the people who represent them.”

    Being open about his Judaism has allowed him “to be able to have a deeper relationship with the people of Pennsylvania, allowed them to share their stories,” Shapiro told the Times, adding: “We’re doing that in this ultimate swing state.”

    Shapiro will release a memoir next year detailing his career and personal life, including the firebombing of the governor’s mansion and his place on the short list to be Kamala Harris’ vice presidential candidate.

    Considered a viable Democratic presence, Shapiro on Saturday stumped for New Jersey gubernatorial candidate U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill in the Garden State at a senior center auditorium and an African Methodist Episcopal church, targeting two groups seen as necessary for Sherrill to beat Republican Jack Ciattarelli.

    Staff writers Julia Terruso and Gillian McGoldrick contributed to this article.

  • Trump administration posts notice that no federal food aid will go out Nov. 1

    Trump administration posts notice that no federal food aid will go out Nov. 1

    The U.S. Department of Agriculture has posted a notice on its website saying federal food aid will not go out Nov. 1, raising the stakes for families nationwide as the government shutdown drags on.

    The new notice comes after the Trump administration said it would not tap roughly $5 billion in contingency funds to keep benefits through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly referred to as SNAP, flowing into November. That program helps about 1 in 8 Americans buy groceries.

    “Bottom line, the well has run dry,” the USDA notice says. “At this time, there will be no benefits issued November 01. We are approaching an inflection point for Senate Democrats.”

    Federal shutdown may bring a halt to food assistance for half a million Philadelphians

    The shutdown, which began Oct. 1, is now the second-longest on record. While the Republican administration took steps leading up to the shutdown to ensure SNAP benefits were paid this month, the cutoff would expand the impact of the impasse to a wider swath of Americans — and some of those most in need — unless a political resolution is found in just a few days.

    The administration blames Democrats, who say they will not agree to reopen the government until Republicans negotiate with them on extending expiring subsidies under the Affordable Care Act. Republicans say Democrats must first agree to reopen the government before negotiation.

    The Shapiro administration has posted messages blaming Republicans for the government shutdown, impacts to SNAP benefits

    Democratic lawmakers have written to Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins requesting to use contingency funds to cover the bulk of next month’s benefits.

    But a USDA memo that surfaced Friday says “contingency funds are not legally available to cover regular benefits.” The document says the money is reserved for such things such as helping people in disaster areas.

    It cited a storm named Melissa, which has strengthened into a major hurricane, as an example of why it’s important to have the money available to mobilize quickly in the event of a disaster.

    The prospect of families not receiving food aid has deeply concerned states run by both parties.

    Even before the shutdown imperiled SNAP benefits, the federal budget bill did. But we can take action. | Opinion

    Some states have pledged to keep SNAP benefits flowing even if the federal program halts payments, but there are questions about whether U.S. government directives may allow that to happen. The USDA memo also says states would not be reimbursed for temporarily picking up the cost.

    Other states are telling SNAP recipients to be ready for the benefits to stop. Arkansas and Oklahoma, for example, are advising recipients to identify food pantries and other groups that help with food.

    Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., accused Republicans and Trump of not agreeing to negotiate.

    “The reality is, if they sat down to try to negotiate, we could probably come up with something pretty quickly,” Murphy said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “We could open up the government on Tuesday or Wednesday, and there wouldn’t be any crisis in the food stamp program.”

  • We’re executing people with impunity. Why are so many of us OK with this?

    We’re executing people with impunity. Why are so many of us OK with this?

    The only thing more shocking than Donald Trump having dozens of people killed on his word — no trial, no jury, just execution — is that more than 70% of voters seem to be fine with this. Even when broken down by political identification, 89% of GOP supporters, 67% of independents, and 56% of Democrats are all right with the U.S. military blowing up civilians.

    Well, maybe.

    The polling that produced those stomach-turning results comes from a Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll released earlier this month, with a headline takeaway that most voters support Trump’s strikes on boats smuggling drugs.

    As the administration escalates its attack on alleged smugglers in international waters, this wide approval is bad news for anyone who cares about (in alphabetical order) human rights, international law, and the Ten Commandments.

    However, I am counting on something I usually rail against — how uninformed most people are — to optimistically dismiss these poll numbers as a bad question about an abhorrent policy.

    You see, the question in the poll was, “Do you support or oppose the U.S. destroying boats bringing drugs into the United States from South America?” Asked in that manner, I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of people were torn between answering “Absolutely!” or “Totally!” After all, who wouldn’t want to stop dangerous drugs from coming into the country?

    As clashes with ICE heat up, Trump’s cold war against immigration rages on | Luis F. Carrasco

    Of course, the way that question should have been asked is, Do you support or oppose the U.S. destroying boats nowhere near the United States and killing their crew under the mere suspicion they are traveling with drugs?

    I hope the answer to that question would have been “Hell no!” or, as U.S. Sen. Rand Paul more elegantly put it when speaking on Fox Business recently, “You cannot have a policy where you just allege that someone is guilty of something, and then kill them.”

    Unlike the voters who were presented with an anodyne version of the president’s actions, the Republican senator from Kentucky knows the deadly reality. At least 42 people have been killed across 10 reported strikes on boats as of Friday; eight bombings occurred in the Caribbean, and two in the Pacific.

    The administration’s legal rationale seems to be that the drug cartels (allegedly) running these boats are designated foreign terrorist organizations, and represent a clear and present danger to the American people, and must be dealt with accordingly. Or, as the president so chillingly put it at a news conference Thursday: “I think we’re just going to kill people that are bringing drugs into our country. OK? We’re gonna kill them. They’re gonna be, like, dead.”

    Like, yikes.

    A combination image shows screen captures from a video posted on the White House X account in September depicting what President Donald Trump said was a strike on a Venezuelan drug cartel vessel.

    Where do you start? A motorboat that (maybe) is carrying drugs 1,000 miles from a U.S. coastline is hardly an imminent threat, and most of the strikes have involved Venezuelan vessels, a country that plays a very small role in drugs that reach the U.S.

    Even if these are drug runners, trafficking is not a capital crime. And let’s say that it was, you must prove a crime has been committed before you pass sentence, yet all we have to go by are the administration’s claims. Forgive me for doubting, but this is the same bunch who sent hundreds of immigrants to a Salvadoran torture prison, saying they were the “worst of the worst,” only for it to come out that their only sin was having the wrong kind of tattoos.

    For Trump’s supporters, didn’t the president run on keeping us out of foreign entanglements, on America no longer being the world’s policeman? Because this sounds a lot like a police officer who’s way out of his jurisdiction deciding to shoot someone for loitering.

    Saudi Arabia’s repressive regime is nothing to laugh about | Luis F. Carrasco

    If there were any doubts about the real motives of Trump’s strikes, consider the fate of two survivors of the U.S. attack on Oct. 16. If you think these two men were detained, questioned, and booked for processing as dangerous members of a foreign terrorist organization who merit death on sight, then you will be sadly disappointed to hear they were released.

    Responsible members of Congress have tried to rein in the administration’s blatant lawlessness.

    An Oct. 18 resolution to block the U.S. military from engaging in hostilities with “any non-state organization engaged in the promotion, trafficking, and distribution of illegal drugs and other related activities” without congressional authorization was voted down in the Senate.

    While most Republican senators went on the record with allowing the president to freely continue killing, U.S. Sens. Paul and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska voted their conscience. On the Democratic side, Pennsylvania’s own John Fetterman, we must assume, also voted his when joining the GOP majority.

    Folks like Fetterman have no excuse. They know what the administration is doing and condone it. My hope is that as more people learn the details of what’s happening, as voters pay attention to what is being done in our name, they will respond accordingly.

    The only principled reaction to what Trump is doing should be revulsion.