Democrats running for New Jersey governor navigate the delicate politics of immigration
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Along an industrial stretch of roadway in New Jersey’s biggest city, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka appeared with immigrants rights activists last week to protest the Trump administration’s deal with a private company to open the first new immigration detention center of the president’s second term.
Voters, he said, “don’t believe that people should be rounded up simply because they try to become citizens of the United States.”
In pushing back against construction of the 1,000-bed detention facility, Baraka, one of six Democrats running for governor in New Jersey this year, has staked out an aggressive approach on an issue that his party has struggled with recently. Other candidates have either moved closer to President Donald Trump, partly embracing his get-tough approach to immigration, or spent most of their time talking about the economy and the high cost of living.
That range makes this year’s June primary for New Jersey governor something of a testing ground for Democrats as they struggle to find their footing on an issue that has long bedeviled them. If the get-tough policy wins in liberal-leaning New Jersey, Democrats running elsewhere may have to rethink how best to appeal to their most loyal supporters.
The fight over the detention center represents the second time since Trump’s inauguration this year that Newark has surfaced in immigration headlines — the first came after ICE arrests in January— with the mayor capturing the spotlight and working to chart his own path forward.
Baraka rejects the notion that most voters support cracking down on immigrants without documentation. He calls openly for defending constitutional rights against searches and seizures without due process and a viable pathway to citizenship.
“If you ask people, are they opposed to criminals? They’re going to say yes,” he told reporters after the demonstration. “If you’re opposed to the murderers and rapists and all this other stuff? Yes. The reality is people want to be secure in their person and papers.”
In his mind, that doesn’t lead to mass detention and deportation of people looking for a better life. Whether his calculus resonates with Democratic primary voters in the June election and into the general is a question a lot of Democrats want answered.
‘Boldness counts’
The Democratic field of six candidates features two sitting members of Congress, the mayors of the state’s two largest cities, the head of the state’s biggest teachers union and a former top legislator who touts his background as a blue collar ironworker.
Not all of them are talking much about immigration, and what works with voters in a blue state’s primary won’t automatically translate as a blueprint for Democrats elsewhere.
But immigration was top-of-mind for voters in 2024 and is a centerpiece of the president’s agenda, according to Micah Rasmussen, the director of the Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics at Rider University, which means Democrats willing to take a stand may benefit politically.
“There is a penalty for seeming lost and not knowing what to say about something because the Democrats haven’t found their way yet,” he said. “Voters are not rewarding hesitation. They want boldness.”
The field in New Jersey
Not every Democrat in the contest to succeed term-limited Democrat Phil Murphy as governor is jockeying to the left of the president. Former state Senate President Steve Sweeney has called on the party to disavow sanctuary state policies supported by Baraka and others and “get back to listening to regular people.”
Other candidates are concentrating on the economy, especially New Jersey’s sky-high property taxes. (The average property tax bill recently topped $10,000 a year) Rep. Josh Gottheimer says he’s running to be the “lower taxes” governor. On immigration, Gottheimer backed the border deal Republicans rejected last year and voted for the Laken Riley Act requiring detention of unauthorized immigrants accused of theft and violent crimes.
Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop points to the progressive-backed victories his city led on, such as raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour before the state and distancing himself from local political party bosses. On immigration, Fulop called the Laken Riley Act “dangerous” and said it undermines the authority of the governor and state attorney general.
New Jersey Education Association President Sean Spiller, backed by his influential union, says making the economy better for working class people is his priority, though he also has said the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigrants is “unacceptable.”
Rep. Mikie Sherrill, a former prosecutor and Navy pilot, has highlighted her biography. She’s emphasized both stronger border security to stop the flow of fentanyl but also called for a pathway to citizenship for immigrants “who are working hard, who are paying taxes.”
The broader campaign
New to this governor’s race is the dissolution of the so-called county line, a ballot design unique to New Jersey in which local party leaders could give preferred candidates prime positioning. The preferential placement was seen as giving party bosses undue influence, but it’s gone thanks in large part to a lawsuit filed by Sen. Andy Kim last year while he was running for his seat.
Republicans are also locked in a primary, largely contested over who most favors the president’s agenda. One exception is state Sen. Jon Bramnick, who has said many of the president’s policies won’t help the GOP win a general election in a state with nearly 1 million more Democrats than Republicans.
Also competing are former Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli, who nearly defeated Murphy in 2021, along with one-time state Sen. Ed Durr, radio host Bill Spadea and former Englewood Cliffs Mayor Mario Kranjac.
There’s a sense among Republicans that Democrats may be vulnerable on immigration. Even Trump skeptics have rejected sanctuary policies like the so-called immigrant trust policy that prohibits local police from working with federal officials to enforce immigration laws.
The GOP has not won a single U.S. Senate race in New Jersey over the last five decades but has fared better in gubernatorial campaigns. Former governors Chris Christie, Christine Todd Whitman and Tom Kean Sr. each won two terms for the party over the last few decades.
By MIKE CATALINI
Associated Press
