New Jersey voters resoundingly backed Democrat Mikie Sherrill in the state’s gubernatorial race, sweeping into power a clean energy advocate who says she will freeze utility rates immediately and “massively build out cheaper and cleaner power generation.”

Sherrill, who is serving her fourth term in the state’s 11th Congressional District in the northern part of the state, trounced Republican Jack Ciattarelli 56% to 42%.

Statewide election results Nov. 4 in Virginia and Georgia also held implications for energy policy. (See related story, Democrats Win the Races for Virginia Governor, Georgia PSC Seats.)

Sherrill’s campaign focused on “affordability” for New Jersey residents, with a promise that on her first day in office, she would address the state’s dramatically rising electricity costs by declaring a “state of emergency” on utility costs, and freezing rates.

“I intend to move quickly and actively, and not passively,” she said in a Nov. 5 interview on “Morning Joe,” explaining her successful message to voters. “I intend to really address these key things immediately.”

Sherrill, a mother of four, is a former Navy helicopter pilot and assistant U.S. Attorney and is considered a moderate Democrat. She succeeds two-term Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy, who pursued an aggressive clean energy agenda — including an 11-GW offshore wind program — but is prevented from running again by New Jersey law.

Ciattarelli, in his third race for governor, received the endorsement of President Donald Trump and tied himself to the president. In an Oct. 8 debate, he gave Trump’s second-term performance an “A” rating and said, “I think he’s right about everything he’s doing.”

Ciattarelli pledged to pull the state out of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, saying it adds costs to state ratepayers by forcing the state to use out-of-state power. He pledged to expand natural gas-fueled generation and would ban offshore wind.

Confronting PJM

Anjuli Ramos-Busot, New Jersey Chapter director of the Sierra Club, which endorsed Sherrill, said she expects the governor-elect to broadly follow Murphy’s clean energy policies but be more focused on the costs and impact on ratepayers. That’s in large part shaped by the state’s difficult energy situation, Ramos-Busot said.

“Her approach to clean energy is definitely focused on affordability,” Ramos-Busot said. “She wants to develop more clean energy and also would sustain the generation that is carbon-based,” she added, noting that Sherrill wants to maintain natural gas plants and make them more efficient, so they continue running.

Ramos-Busot said she believed Sherrill is open about her support for clean energy and the fact that she won with such a strong majority shows the public accepts that position.

New Jersey ratepayers’ average electricity bill increased 20% in June, and the state expects to face a dramatic shortfall in electricity supply as more data centers are developed in the PJM region.

Sherrill’s pledge to freeze electricity rates drew some skepticism from analysts, who wondered if the governor had the power to make such a move. Electricity rates are set by the basic generation services auction, and the prices are passed on to ratepayers through the utilities. Those rates are heavily influenced by the PJM capacity auction: In the July 2024 auction, rates increased 10-fold.

PJM officials say the increase is the result of the dramatic rise in demand due to the expected data center load and the closure of fossil fuel plants more rapidly than new plants — mainly clean energy plants — have come online.

Sherrill, on her campaign website, has said she will “require more transparency from our utility companies, including PSE&G, JCP&L, Atlantic City Electric and Rockland Electric and our grid operator PJM.” She said PJM has “really screwed up the market” by creating delays in the connection of clean energy resources to the grid, helping to create the shortfall. She has said she expects the attorney general will seek to force PJM to connect clean energy sources to the grid.

In an October debate, Sherrill said she is “going to drive in an energy arsenal of power as we drive costs down over time, making sure we build out our solar, our battery storage, improve our gas generation in the state and then develop nuclear power.”

She also pledged to modernize and make more efficient gas-fueled plants in the state and make permitting easier for new projects, including solar and battery storage projects.

During the campaign, Sherrill made little mention of the state’s offshore wind sector, which mostly has stalled amid economic challenges and opposition from the Trump administration. The state has no offshore wind project in progress since Atlantic Shores withdrew its plans in June. (See Developer Shelves Atlantic Shores, Seeks to Cancel ORECs.)

But prior to the campaign, she was a strong wind advocate. In a September 2024 op-ed, she wrote that the state is “perfectly positioned to shape the future by becoming a global leader in the renewable offshore wind space,” adding that the state “cannot let this opportunity go to waste.”

Sherrill, during the primary election, said she would expand community solar projects on warehouses and commercial space and put “solar fields on landfills, brownfields, parking lots and quarries.”

She also said she would focus on energy efficiency and incentivizing customers to reduce energy use during peak hours. She also advocated for the development of “more and faster electric vehicle chargers, which work with the grid, so people can feel secure making their next car purchase an electric vehicle.”

As a member of Congress, she supported the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the Inflation Reduction Act and the Chips & Science Act.