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The chaos unfolding in California seeped onto the New Jersey campaign trail Tuesday as Democratic gubernatorial candidates pitched their plan to resist President Donald Trump.
Tuesday is primary Election Day in the Garden State, and the race to replace Gov. Phil Murphy is on. Murphy, who is term-limited this year, is one of several Democratic governors leading blue-state resistance to Trump’s second term and his flurry of executive actions.
Two candidates vying for an opportunity to fill Murphy’s shoes – Rep. Mikie Sherrill and Rep. Josh Gottheimer, both U.S. representatives from New Jersey – defended California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s response to the protests and riots impeding U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations in Los Angeles.
When asked how she would handle the ongoing situation in Los Angeles differently from Newsom, Sherrill touted her military and law enforcement background and told Fox News Digital she would stand up “strongly in favor of keeping people here in the state safe,” return safety to the streets and continue “speaking out against a president who is trying to create violence in the country.”
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Sherrill is a U.S. Navy veteran and served in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Jersey as an outreach and re-entry coordinator, which she described as prosecuting federal cases and advising law enforcement on investigations.
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Trump said this weekend it would be a “great thing” if Newsom was arrested. After casting her ballot in Montclair on Tuesday morning, Sherrill called Trump’s comments “ridiculous.”
“It should concern everyone,” Sherrill said.
The Trump administration has ordered National Guardsmen and Marines to Los Angeles following days of escalating anti-ICE protests and riots.
“Governor Newsom surged law enforcement in, and what Trump seems to be doing is trying to add fuel to the fire and really make the situation violent and bad,” Sherrill told reporters. “That’s completely unacceptable.”
Also in the Garden State on Tuesday afternoon, Gottheimer said it was “outrageous” for Trump to send the National Guard to California without Newsom’s request.
“The fact that the president, for the first time since 1965, sent troops in from the National Guard without a request from the governor is outrageous. It’s just more chaos that we’re used to having in this administration. It’s not how I would approach this,” Gottheimer told Fox News Digital after voting in Tenafly.
The last time a sitting U.S. president used his federal authority to deploy the National Guard without the governor’s request was during the civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery in 1965.
Gottheimer said his primary focus is on protecting New Jersey families, and that priority would guide his leadership through any situation if elected governor.
Both candidates on Tuesday said they were best positioned to take on Trump. While Sherrill said she is the candidate willing to resist the status quo, Gottheimer pitched himself as the “tenacious” leader to actually beat the Republican nominee this fall.
In addition to Sherrill and Gottheimer, Democratic gubernatorial candidates for New Jersey include Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop, New Jersey Education Association President Sean Spiller and former state Senate President Steve Sweeney.
Baraka was arrested for trespassing at an ICE facility in Newark this year, another example of Trump’s immigration policies taking center stage in the New Jersey governor’s race.
Last week, Baraka filed a lawsuit against Alina Habba, U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey, and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Agent Ricky Patel “for false arrest, malicious prosecution, and defamation.”
And Spiller said on X the situation in LA is “not normal” and vowed to stand up for New Jersey against Trump and his “tactics that are real threats” if elected governor.
“From ICE tearing apart families to the President sending out the National Guard – over the objection of the Governor – and now apparently contemplating deploying Marines on our people – we have to stand up in solidarity and defend our democracy,” Spiller said.
Fox News’ Kirill Clark contributed to this report.
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