TRENTON, NJ – There’s a clear contrast in the New Jersey governor’s race, as the New Jersey Monitor reports today.

Mikie Sherrill is "focused on economics,” lowering costs for New Jersey families and small businesses.

Jack Ciattarelli, on the other hand, “spoke at a Moms for Liberty Rally,” taking the podium for a far-right MAGA front group that “defam[es] educators as groomers and opponent parents as pedophiles.”

While Jack shills for Trump and MAGA economic chaos, Mikie’s focused on the downstream impact for real New Jerseyans: “Costs added by tariffs would soon be passed down to consumers, Sherrill warned. ‘The thing I’ve been most concerned about — what I’ve been hearing from economists and now I’m hearing on the ground — is we’re going to start raising prices. We’re already in an affordability crisis, and worse is coming thanks to the federal government.’”

New Jersey Monitor: NJ governor hopefuls make divergent pitches on campaign trail

By Nikita Biryukov

• Democratic Rep. Mikie Sherrill and Republican former Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli made their pitches to disparate groups of voters Thursday in their bids to be the Garden State’s next governor.

• Ciattarelli, the GOP’s nominee for the second consecutive gubernatorial cycle, spoke at a Moms for Liberty Rally in Jersey City, where he renewed his opposition to state guidance that allows school districts to accept students’ asserted gender identities without notifying parents.

• Sherrill’s stops focused on economics. At businesses in Edison, Clarksboro, and Haddonfield, among others, she discussed the impact of the Trump administration’s tariffs on New Jersey businesses.

• At Death of the Fox Brewing Company in Clarksboro, a craft brewery and coffee roastery, she noted how the tariffs on Brazil, a major exporter of coffee and beef to the United States, were affecting New Jersey businesses.

• “The frustrating part for the business owner is these political fights. It’s not necessarily ‘here’s why’ or ‘here’s the targeted plan and here’s how it’s going to impact us,’” she said. “It’s all passed along to small businesses.”

• Tariffs are a type of tax on foreign goods paid by importers. When tariff rates rise, U.S. businesses must pay more to import goods from other countries. The United States levies a 50% tariff rate on some goods from Brazil, one of the steepest rates levied on any economy in the Trump administration’s trade war.

• The costs added by tariffs would soon be passed down to consumers, Sherrill warned.

• “The thing I’ve been most concerned about — what I’ve been hearing from economists and now I’m hearing on the ground — is we’re going to start raising prices. We’re already in an affordability crisis, and worse is coming thanks to the federal government.”