Barack Obama swooped into Newark to prop up Rep. Mikie Sherrill in a New Jersey gubernatorial race that’s tighter than a budget under audit.
The New York Post reported that on Saturday, the former president headlined a rally at Essex County College Gym, aiming to bolster Sherrill against Republican Jack Ciattarelli as polls show her lead shrinking to a razor-thin margin.
With the election looming on Tuesday, November 4, 2025, Obama painted the contest as a stand against President Donald Trump, slamming the administration’s tactics like using the Justice Department to target foes and sending National Guard troops to cities over crime spikes.
Obama didn’t hold back, telling the crowd, “It’s hard to know where to start because every day this White House offers up a fresh batch of lawlessness and carelessness and mean-spiritedness and just plain old craziness.”
That’s a spicy meatball of rhetoric, but let’s unpack it—while the Trump administration’s hardline approach may rile up critics, many conservatives see it as a necessary pushback against crime and political overreach that’s long been ignored by progressive elites.
Sherrill, a Naval Academy grad and retired Navy pilot, joined the stage with gusto, declaring New Jersey the “gateway to America” and promising to fight Trump’s tariffs, which she dubbed a global shakedown scheme.
She also took a swipe at Ciattarelli for staying mum on the Trump administration freezing funds for the Gateway Tunnel project, quipping, “Jack Ciattarelli is nowhere to be found.”
Now, that’s a clever jab, but Ciattarelli’s silence could just as easily be strategic—why wade into a federal fight when New Jersey voters are more worried about sky-high electricity costs that Sherrill herself vowed to tackle with a state of emergency?
The crowd ate it up, waving signs like “Hit the road, Jack” and chanting barbs against Ciattarelli, while big Democratic names like Sen. Cory Booker and Rep. Nellie Pou flanked Obama for maximum star power.
Recent numbers don’t lie—an Atlas Intel poll from November 1, 2025, pegs Sherrill at 50.2% to Ciattarelli’s 49.3%, a statistical dead heat, while her Real Clear Politics average lead sits under 3%.
Democrats are banking on minority turnout in Newark, where nearly half the population is Black and over a third Hispanic, with Sherrill dominating those demographics per a Suffolk University poll—65% to 12% among Black voters and 63% to 18% among Hispanics.
But Ciattarelli, who nearly upset Gov. Phil Murphy in 2021 despite trailing in polls, has momentum and a knack for outperforming expectations, which has Democrats sweating despite early voting showing only a slim edge for their side.
Speaking of Ciattarelli, he shrugged off Sherrill’s high-profile endorsements while campaigning in Monmouth, insisting to The Post that no amount of star power—be it Obama or even FDR’s ghost—would sway the race.
Trump, meanwhile, offered a tele-rally for Ciattarelli but opted to skip New Jersey in the final stretch, heading to Mar-a-Lago instead, a move Republican strategists say avoids energizing Democratic protest votes—a pragmatic play in a purple state.
