Gubernatorial Candidates Intensify Final Appeals in Virginia and New Jersey Ahead of Key Midterm Elections

With Election Day looming, gubernatorial candidates in Virginia and New Jersey made final statewide pushes: Democrats Abigail Spanberger (VA) and Mikie Sherrill (NJ) and Republicans Winsome Earle-Sears (VA) and Jack Ciattarelli (NJ) crisscrossed their states to court late voters. Polling and fundraising have generally favored Spanberger in Virginia, where Democrats hold narrow leads in the governor and lieutenant governor contests and the attorney general race remains a toss-up, even as Republicans closed with a late Manassas rally featuring Gov. Glenn Youngkin. New Jersey’s contest is more competitive but has already seen more than one million early and mail ballots cast; Sherrill leads in recent polls while Ciattarelli is mounting a comeback with high-profile surrogates and a Trump phone rally. Campaign themes diverged—Republicans stressing tax relief and crime concerns and Democrats emphasizing schools, economic opportunity and investments in children—while both parties frame the races as bellwether tests of post‑2024 momentum and voter enthusiasm. Observers view outcomes in New York, New Jersey and Virginia as indicators of the national political mood and which party can turn out its coalition heading into 2026.