GLEN RIDGE, N.J. (AP) — Democrats say the fallout from the Trump administration’s aggressive tactics during the federal government shutdown could give them a welcome boost in the only two gubernatorial elections this year.
According to the Congressional Research Service, 175,000 people work for the federal government in Virginia. In New Jersey, where the CRS estimates there are about 23,000 federal workers, the Republican administration has announced it will freeze $18 billion in funding for a rail tunnel connecting the state with New York City.
The Nov. 4 elections in Virginia and New Jersey represent the next huge test of how voters view both President Donald Trump’s second term and Democrats’ response to it. They come against the backdrop of the shutdown fight sparked by Senate Democrats’ decision to reject a Republican-backed funding bill in hopes of negotiating an extension of expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies.
Shutdown puts Trump in the spotlight
The Republican president’s threat to lay off more government employees and halt the tunnel project gives Democrats hope for an unexpected boost in the off-year elections.
“I think this decision by Donald Trump on the Gateway Tunnel is devastating for Jack Ciattarelli,” said Democratic Sen. Andy Kim of New Jersey. “It puts Trump in the spotlight.”
Ciattarelli is the Trump-backed Republican candidate for governor of New Jersey, a state that leans Democratic but has shown a willingness to support Republicans in the gubernatorial election. He is running against U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill, a four-term Democratic congresswoman who has made the Trump administration’s tactics the centerpiece of her argument to voters in the Garden State.
The closure and Trump’s decision to pull the plug on the tunnel project fit seamlessly into Sherrill’s narrative. Recently, outside a suburban train station in New York City, she said the project would be a boon for New Jersey workers and commuters, blaming the president and her rival.
“We risk the failure of a century-old tunnel. That means over 200,000 people die every day,” she said. “It’s despicable that the President of the United States would cost us so much money and attack our economy. And it’s despicable that Jack Ciattarelli would just go along with it.”
Republicans blame Democrats
Ciattarelli, in turn, blames Sherrill and her Democratic colleagues in Congress.
“Instead of doing her job, she chose to play partisan politics,” said campaign strategist Chris Russell. “She should be ashamed of herself.”
While Democrats see an opportunity in the shutdown and its consequences, Republicans are not prepared to concede this point. Even those who criticize Trump say it probably doesn’t matter.
New Jersey state Sen. Jon Bramnick, the lone Trump critic in this year’s GOP primary, said the voters he’s talking to seem to have already made up their minds. They either love the president and support his policies – and Ciattarelli as his choice for governor – or they don’t like him at all.
“It’s all burned in,” he said.
New Jersey Republican Assemblyman Brian Bergen said he doesn’t view the “permanence” of the shutdown as an issue in the race. Although the president is narrowing Democrats’ margin of victory in New Jersey in 2024, he is likely still “underwater” for many in the state, he said.
He said the length of the shutdown could be a factor, but didn’t believe it would harm Ciattarelli.
“I don’t think this will have a negative impact on Jack,” he said, pausing for a moment before adding, “Every day is a new day. Anything can happen, especially with President Trump.”
Virginia’s Democratic candidate is running against Trump
Virginia’s Democrats also see the shutdown as an opportunity. The party’s candidate for governor, Abigail Spanberger, has released ad after ad calling her opponent, Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears, a MAGA Republican who “speaks for Trump” and supports his firing of federal workers and the Department of Government Efficiency.
“Virginia residents are already facing the dire impacts of DOGE, reckless tariffs and attacks on their health insurance,” she said. “And now our commonwealth faces completely unnecessary job cuts as President Trump promises mass layoffs.”
The president’s aggressive tactics were also on display in the Virginia House of Delegates race, where every seat will be on the ballot next month.
Virginia House Speaker Don Scott, a Democrat, said in an interview with MSNBC that Trump’s visit to a naval base in Virginia on Sunday came because the paychecks of military members he spoke with were at risk because of the shutdown, adding: “Virginia voters are going to be a very strong one come November.” Send message to Trump.”
Earle-Sears did not directly address Trump’s role in the shutdown. Her campaign did not respond to an email asking about the impact of the shutdown.
Sarah Lamm, a federal worker from New Jersey who said she is currently working without pay as an “exempt” employee, declined to say who she would vote for in the gubernatorial election but said she would definitely be thinking about the shutdown. She said she is making ends meet because she is financially “responsible” but doesn’t know how much longer her savings will last.
Her message, she said, is: “I am someone’s community member. I exist. This is a hardship for me and my family right now.”
