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[INSPRATIONAL MUSIC] - Hi everyone, Steve Adubato.

Way more importantly, we're gonna have a new governor in New Jersey in January of 2026.

And this is part of an in-depth series of conversations with Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill, you see on camera right now.

And her Republican opponent, former state legislator, Jack Ciattarelli.

Congresswoman, thank you so much for joining us.

- Thanks for having me.

I really appreciate it.

- Now, people are gonna find out something about you in TV spots, but real quick, your background bio that people should know about as they get ready to consider the issues.

And something about your background, please, Mikie.

- Yeah, sure.

So I went to the Naval Academy, I started at 18, that's when I took my first oath to the Constitution.

I then served for about 10 years as a Navy helicopter pilot and a Russian policy officer.

I went on to serve again at the US Attorney's Office, and now I'm in Congress in my third term.

And I'm also a mom of four kids, which is a lot of the reason I'm running for governor right now, because I wanna create a great future for them, and for kids across New Jersey.

- Along those lines, let's start with this issue.

You and I have talked about childcare in the past.

We're gonna talk about, again, there's a new initiative called The Start Strong NJ.

The website will be up, promoting greater public awareness about accessible, affordable childcare.

As governor January, 2026, if elected, highest priority regarding childcare would be?

- Make sure that we have more providers in the system, because right now we've seen just so many of our childcare facilities went under during COVID.

And I have to tell you, it was a huge struggle for me when I was having my children.

In fact, there were times when I was paying more in childcare than I was making.

And so it was a real decision point to decide whether it made sense for me to even keep working.

And yet if I hadn't, I don't think I'd be in congress today.

And so making sure parents have opportunities for quality and affordable childcare is so important.

And I've been fighting this fight as you know, and we've talked about years now, and I'll tell you, it's kind of a good news, bad news story.

The good news is, after years of trying to explain to people that this was not just a woman's issue or a children's issue, it was an economic issue that was so important to the workforce, we now are hearing people understand that.

I hear a lot from chambers of commerce and from businesses about childcare.

So that's the good news.

The bad news is, it's because we're at a crisis point in New Jersey and really across the country, people are paying more for childcare than they're paying for in-state college tuition.

So making sure we start with the providers so that they can get on the job training and accreditation, so they don't have to pay extra money, but actually can be working towards their credits as they're making money.

Ensuring that we're also, as we move into universal pre-K, not upending the infant-based model.

So pushing support in for the infant-based model across our state because we've been upending that a little bit, or we don't have these infant deserts.

Because that inflection point for women and for parents across the board often comes at that sort of early several month point when you have to go back to work, and if you don't have any infant-based care, if they only take two-year olds, you're in real trouble.

- Congresswoman, we're gonna shift gears dramatically.

I talked to Jack Ciattarelli, your opponent, about this.

He doesn't know, he said you don't know, what he said, he is not gonna know what you said.

But here's the bottom line.

If Governor, what could you and would you do to deal with the horrific situation, the scary situation around political violence right now as governor?

- So I often talk about the oaths I've taken to the Constitution, and what I mean that to signify, and what I deeply feel, is that I have the responsibility to uphold those values inside that document.

And one of the main values is this idea of freedom of speech, that we can go out and advocate for things we believe in.

And political speech is a cornerstone to that idea.

- Right.

- And so I have committed that I will support and defend the constitution up to and including giving my own life for those values.

And so the idea that we would have political violence based on not liking somebody's speech is abhorrent to me.

And that is up to, and including people who say things that I don't like.

But that's the world.

I mean, we are in a democracy.

We have to open up space for this discord, especially in these really difficult times.

And I'm gonna fight tooth and nail to explain to people why, for example, it's important to have women in the workforce.

Why it's important that everyone in this country have opportunity and rights and freedoms.

I deeply believe in that.

But everyone has the space in this country to talk about these ideals in the marketplace of ideas.

And it is horrible that we have this kind of violence going on.

It is keeping good people away from running for office.

It is shutting down voices across this country of people who now don't want to engage.

- Congresswoman, I'm sorry for interrupting, but let me ask you this.

The president, president Trump, publicly after the Charlie Kirk horrific assassination said, "Listen, when Republicans, when those on the right "engage in violence, their extremism "is because they're concerned about crime.

"But it's the Democrats who do it."

When you heard that, your thoughts?

- There's not an acceptable reason for people to engage in violence if you are not part of our military on a mission, if you are not part of our law enforcement, keeping our streets safe, for anybody in public office to encourage or to accept violence as a means of expression or as a means of extra judicial violence, that's unacceptable.

And certainly, no one in public office should be supporting that.

- How about this transition, which makes no sense, but I'm gonna do it anyway.

From political violence to energy costs, now you have said publicly, day one, you would do what, congresswoman, if you were governor?

- I am going to declare a state of emergency on utility costs and freeze rate hikes, because I'm just furious that there were all of these signs and signals that we were facing an energy crisis and yet all of the various actors in this space failed to act in a timely manner and then dumped the cost on families across New Jersey.

So on day one, I'm gonna put a stop to that.

- Do you disagree, is there any part of the Governor Murphy's energy policy, particularly around wind that you would disagree with?

- You know, I think we spent an incredible amount of money on wind and we now don't have wind power.

We've shut down other forms of power because we made this big bet and we shouldn't have done that until we had the power to put into our system.

We did not hold JM accountable, which we really need to move to act on.

I know we've seen other governors take them to court for various reasons because they've so screwed up the market.

And then I also think we need to be strongly against what is coming from Washington.

This one big beautiful bill from Donald Trump is gonna raise costs on families, another couple hundred of dollars as we're desperately trying to drive costs down.

- Congresswoman, how?

- So he is undermining the support for much of the power generation we're doing in the Northeast.

So we're halfway through different projects, or he's cut all the subsidies to solar as we're making sure that we have those credits, those tax credits to get solar in the ground quickly and cheaply for our consumers.

And in this way, it's gonna drive up cost by over $200 per family as we don't have enough power generation.

He's also cutting off a lot of the innovation as we're trying to generate new forms of power to drive down costs for consumers.

- Clarify this for us.

There's a Ciattarelli, and believe me, we're not going back and forth on commercial spots because you could do that forever.

Is this a direct quote from you, you're talking about clean energy, you said, "My policies will cost you an arm and a leg, "but if you're a good person, you'll do it."

- Steve, as you know, and you've probably heard that entire interview, I was saying the exact opposite.

I was expressing frustration with people who would suggest that because I know that we have to drive costs down for consumers.

So I think this is just part of where my opponent is willing to stoop to as he is finding himself behind in the polls, he is now just putting out misinformation.

- Okay, you know, I asked him this about you, so I'm gonna do this with you about him.

One of your greatest concerns, then I'm gonna ask you to say something positive about him.

One of your greatest concerns if Jack Ciattarelli were in fact elected governor of New Jersey and starting serving in January, 2026, your greatest concern would be what, Congresswoman?

- That he'll do whatever Trump tells him to do.

And he's basically said that.

He said he can think of no way in which he disagrees with Trump.

And then he said something even more insidious and wrong, that it's his job to support the President.

And look, I've been a public servant my entire life and I know my job in running for governor and being governor, is not to serve the president, it's to serve the people of New Jersey.

No one in public service should ever get wrong who they're responsible to.

And as governor, you are responsible to the people of the state.

You are not responsible for doing whatever the president tells you to do.

In fact, part of the balance of powers across this country is strong governors in our Federalist system.

So the idea somehow that he would think that his job is to do whatever the hell Trump wants him to do is wrongheaded and dangerous for our state.

And that's what's leading to all of these costs.

So he has said, for example, that instead of fighting these tariffs, which at least one court has decided illegal 'cause they're Congress' purview, instead of fighting the tariffs, which are putting small businesses out of business, raising costs on everybody, preventing large businesses from hiring and look at our jobs numbers, instead of fighting this, he said, "It's our job in New Jersey "to take on a little pain "to support the president's tariffs."

That makes no sense.

It shows you who he is fighting for, and it's not the people of New Jersey.

- Okay, do the other part.

We're about to take a break.

One positive thing about former state legislator, business professional, Jack Ciattarelli, your opponent, one positive.

- You know, he has a son who's serving in the military and I admire that.

- His answer was very short and concise and complimentary about you as well, Congresswoman, you'll see it on the air when it airs.

This is United States representative, Mikie Sherrill.

This is our New Jersey's Next Governor, in depth series of conversations with the congresswoman and her Republican opponent, Jack Ciattarelli.

We will be right back right after this.

(grand music) - [Announcer] To see more State of Affairs with Steve Adubato programs, find us online and follow us on social media.

- We continue our conversation with United States Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill, Democratic candidate for governor.

Federal cuts to Medicaid, impact on New Jersey, what would it be in your view, Congresswoman?

- It'd be horrible.

We know one in three children in New Jersey receive their health insurance through Medicaid.

We know that seniors received nursing home care there.

And I was recently down at CamCare, which is a federally qualified health center, and we saw, you know, the work being done in there to take on obesity, to take on asthma, really expensive community concerns.

And yet they were trying to not only get better outcomes for the community, but lower costs and not receiving just emergency room care, which is the worst and most expensive kind of care.

And they were talking through what was going to come with this One Big Beautiful Bill.

It's not just about the cuts to providers, but it's also about the fact that much of that money would be shifted to administrative costs because now there's a lot of bureaucracy and red tape that the administration has added onto this and trying to clear people off the roll.

So it's gonna be devastating and as we look at the One Big Beautiful Bill, that'll put about a $5 billion hole in our state budget, and you know, Jack Ciattarelli has of course expressed a ton of support for it, given that he's just 100% in line with the president.

- You know, you said several times about Jack Ciattarelli being 100% aligned with the president, Well, the New Jersey State budget, which you would be responsible for constitutionally, legally as governor elected, has gone up exponentially.

What, if any concerns do you have about Governor Murphy's fiscal policies in the state, vis-a-vis the budget being way larger than when he came in several years ago, eight years ago?

- Well, I think, you know, I have both concerns with some of the programs that are running and whether or not they're getting results, which is why I'm gonna have a report card as governor so we can see who's getting the contract, how much money's going into the program, what went in in years past, what's going in this year, and if we're actually getting the results that we've contracted for.

And I think that final piece is what's really missing often in the state budget.

Are the programs that we are setting up actually delivering what they've committed to delivering for people?

If not, should we fix them?

Should we cancel them, et cetera.

And in that way, I think we're going to see cuts to the state budget on the programs that simply aren't delivering for the people of New Jersey.

But I will also point out that some of this is fully funding the pension system and fully funding schools across the state.

- Some of it is.

- And some of that is, so it's a about balance.

I think we need to both do better fiscally with some bloat in the budget, which I'm gonna take on.

And like I said, you know, really delve into whether or not certain programs are serving the people appropriately.

But also on the same side, I'm gonna be fiscally responsible in managing our future so that we're not mortgaging our future on the backs of our kids by not, say, funding our pension.

- Well, you mentioned funding our public schools.

State funding to public schools, great impact on local property taxes.

I asked Ciattarelli this, I'm gonna ask you, as governor, what, if any, would be a significant change that you would make in this, I know it's arcane, I know it's complicated, but is there a significant, relatable, understandable change that you would make as governor in the state school funding formula?

- So what we need to do with the state school funding formula is modernize and stabilize it.

And what I mean by that is the formula has not changed in years.

And so it doesn't account for how some of the different districts have more students with disabilities or more challenging students.

So in that way, we need to modernize the formula, but we also need to stabilize it.

And by that I mean you can't have these huge violent swings year over year, because what happens is the budget comes out pretty close to the start of the school year.

And so towns receive their budget and suddenly they're making massive decisions and swings based on the swing of the school funding formula.

We need to stabilize that as well so we don't see these huge swings which result in cutting programs or cutting massive amount of teachers, but rather we can stabilize that year over year.

- Clarify this for us, you did an interview early on with Charlamagne tha God, you know the interview, you know what he asked you, you know that it's getting a lot of play on social media where you're asked about money you and your family made in the stock market.

What is accurate?

Help us understand that, Congresswoman.

- So I have- - I think he asked, I'm sorry for, I think he asked you about money you made in the stock market while in Congress.

Help us understand that.

- Yeah, So I don't trade individual stocks.

I've divested of all individual stocks, as has my husband.

So I don't make money in the stock market based on anything I know, I don't trade stocks.

And so I have put out all of my financial information.

I have been really radically transparent so people can actually see for themselves all of my financial transactions.

And I really have called upon my opponent to at least, at a minimum, he doesn't have to even go nearly as far as I've gone with transparency and accountability, but he should at least, at the beginning, release his tax returns.

He hasn't done that for about 10 years.

And in that time we know he sold his company, the company that was printing misinformation about opioids and getting people addicted.

We know he sold that company for millions of dollars.

And so the public at least be able to see his tax returns and judge for themselves about his financial history.

- And your tax returns are public.

- They are, for the last two years, all my state and federal tax returns, and then of course all of my financials that we've released.

And, again, I've had report after report after report of how for years I've gone above and beyond the requirements of transparency, and I think it shows that I've never traded on information I've received from any job I've had or in any way misused my office.

- Shifting back to issues that are really substantive, New Jersey Transit?

The governor said, when elected, I'm gonna fix, you know the quote, on New Jersey Transit.

"Unless it kills me."

We hope he lives a long, healthy life.

It's not fixed, problems are pretty bad.

You say, Congresswoman, if governor, New Jersey Transit.

- So this is something that I have long fought year after year to make sure we're ending the summers of hell, we're getting more resources, we're holding the correct people accountable.

And so from the beginning of my career in Congress, I was called the tunnel obsessed congresswoman, fighting day after day, week after week against an administration, the first Trump administration, who held infrastructure week every week and yet failed to fund our Hudson River tunnels until just last year when we were having a summer of hell with the catenary wires and getting $300 million into the Northeast rail for catenary wires, again and again and again, holding people accountable and driving in resources to our valid systems.

And that's what we need to continue to do.

I recently sat down with Port Authority to discuss the fires on the path system and how we're going to go about fixing the lines underground that were damaged by superstorm Sandy and still haven't been appropriately repaired.

So I'm working on getting those resources in.

So as governor I will continue to drive in the resources we need to make sure that commuters have the best commuting system possible, but also take on the challenges we have across the state, not just with some of our rail systems, but also how our roads are over capacity.

The fact that too many places in our state don't even have public transportation.

The fact that in the south we need a light rail across the south to help move people around there and to continue to look at how we build out transportation.

Because right now we're dealing with rail lines that were conceived, the lines themselves, the maps were conceived in the 1800s, many of 'em.

I mean, think about Montclair, think about Morristown and Madison and Chatham, how those cities grew up around rail lines conceived in the 1800s.

It is time for an update across the state.

- Lemme try this.

I did ask Jack Ciattarelli about this.

I need to ask you, we talked a little bit about public health and vaccine policy.

Jack Ciattarelli is where he is on vaccine policies.

What should be mandated, what should not be, what should be voluntary.

He talked about parents' rights.

This is no inside information, he said it publicly.

Florida Governor DeSantis, no more, no more mandates on vaccines.

If governor, vaccine mandates?

Talk about it.

- Yeah, here's another really key problem with the platform of my opponent and going headlong into whatever the Trump administration does.

RFK, here is a person who often makes decisions based on reels TikTok or influencers.

Some of the information he puts out has no basis in medicine or science.

It's not even clear where he gets some of his information.

- You're talking about RFK, not Jack Ciattarelli.

- I'm talking about RFK.

And he's also suggested that insurance companies shouldn't pay for vaccines.

And we've seen some sweeping decisions by governors, Republican governors across the country, on just that.

And so as governor, I'm gonna work with the northeast group of governors who are working to make sure that good public health information is put out, that good public health decisions are being made, that we continue to work on innovation and demand that our health insurance companies provide vaccines to families.

That's exactly what I'm gonna do.

And then as far as public health, I have got to tell you, we are seeing an alarming increase in preventable diseases across this country.

And we've even seen several cases of measles here in New Jersey.

We've seen babies dying across the country from whooping cough because they're too young to get the vaccine and yet we don't have the immunity we need in our population anymore.

- Congresswoman, I'm sorry for interrupting, what would you do in that regard?

- We need to make sure that certain vaccines for children that we are giving those vaccines to our children, especially if they're attending our schools so that we can keep the population safe and we can ensure that we are not seeing preventable diseases killing babies and really creating diseases throughout the community that really should be a thing of past.

- By the way, I'm so sorry for interrupting the congresswoman while I'm getting signals we're running outta time.

We can't create more time.

To Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill, I wanna thank you and your team so much for allowing us to be with you for this time.

And we wish you and your family all the best.

- Well, thank you so much.

Always great seeing you, Steve.

And thanks again.

- Same here, and also, make sure you watch the interview with Jack Ciattarelli.

Make sure you check out both campaign's respective websites, find out more, be an informed voter.

Don't just get out there and vote.

Democracy is definitely not a spectator sport.

Be an informed voter who makes the best choice possible for our state and our nation in November, 'cause New Jersey is only one of two states in the nation, it's us and Virginia, with a gubernatorial race after the presidential.

I'm Steve Adubato, Thank you so much for watching.

New Jersey's next Governor, we're gonna find out soon.

See you next time.

- [Narrator] State of Affairs with Steve Adubato is a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Funding has been provided by RWJBarnabas Health.

Let’s be healthy together.

Kean University.

NJM Insurance Group.

The Turrell Fund, a foundation serving children.

Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey.

IBEW Local 102.

Operating Engineers, Local 825.

The New Jersey Education Association.

Eastern Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters.

And by these public spirited organizations, individuals and associations committed to informing New Jersey citizens about the important issues facing the Garden State.

Promotional support provided by NJ.Com.

And by Insider NJ.

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