Mikie Sherrill skips majority of House votes amid tough NJ gubernatorial race

Rep. Mikie Sherrill, D-N.J., has the most missed votes of any legislator in the House by a wide margin as he makes a tightening bid to become New Jersey’s next governor.

Sherrill has missed 145 votes in the House since the 119th Congress, which began Jan. 3, accounting for 53% of the measures introduced.

The next closest member, Donald Norcross, D.N.J., missed by 83 votes.

His attendance record stands out even when compared to other candidates who have run statewide in recent years.

When asked about that record, Sean Higgins, communications director for Sherrill’s campaign, said the congresswoman is working to represent the state wherever possible.

“Mikie Sherrill is out there every day fighting for New Jersey on critical issues like the Gateway Tunnel Project, which Trump ‘killed’ and said would ‘die,'” Higgins said, referring to the Trump administration’s recent freeze on billions of dollars allocated to infrastructure projects in urban centers across the country. he said.

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Although Sherrill’s high number of missed votes is not unprecedented, it stands out as one of the only examples in recent years of a serving member of the House of Representatives visibly abandoning participation in the chamber amid increased scrutiny of a competitive bid for statewide office.

That marks a surprisingly tight race in a state that has voted blue in years past, according to Matthew Green, director of graduate studies at the Catholic University of America.

“This certainly suggests it’s a close enough race that Sherrill will have to spend as much time as possible in New Jersey, which could lead to missed votes in Washington. Missing votes is not uncommon,” Green said. “But if you do that too much, your opponent will say, ‘Oh, you’re not doing the job you have now, why should voters trust you with a new job?’ “You can say,” he said. “But you only campaign once. I could see candidates saying, ‘I can miss a lot of votes and it won’t hurt me running for office.'”

Sherrill leads Republican challenger Jack Ciattarelli by four points among registered voters, 48%-44%, according to a FOX News poll last week. His lead, which boasted a seven-point lead over his rival just a month ago in September, has diminished over the past few months.

Republican Jack Ciattarelli answers questions during the first general election gubernatorial debate with Democratic challenger Mikie Sherrill on September 21, 2025 in Lawrenceville, N.J. (Noah K. Murray/AP Photo)

Chris Russell, a strategist for the Ciattarelli campaign, noted that Sherrill’s absence has become more severe as the November election approaches. He noted that Sherrill missed 87% of the vote in the last three months, participating in only eight of 63 votes in that period.

“He ran for reelection to Congress in 2024, knowing full well that he had no intention of doing his job. And when he showed up, his two most important votes were to raise taxes on working people and shut down the government,” Russell said. “It is a shame that Sherrill missed nearly 90% of the votes she was supposed to cast in the last three months.”

Sherrill joined her Democratic colleagues in voting against the short-term spending package last month and Donald Trump’s signature tax and border security package in July.

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In the years since proxy voting was eliminated in 2023 to accommodate the COVID-19 pandemic, only one member of the House of Representatives participating in statewide elections has missed a similar number of votes cast for Sherrill.

Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., running for the Senate in 2024, had just 52% of the chamber’s votes. But unlike the New Jersey lawmaker, Schiff gained a dominant lead over his opponent; He won the election with a margin of 17.8%.

On the other side of the coin, Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., who ran for the Senate that year, won her election with just 0.3% of the vote but managed to participate in 99% of the chamber’s deliberations. Besides Schiff, six other members seeking to run for Senate that year had voter turnout rates of 80% or higher.

Notably, the only other member seeking governor in 2025, former Rep. Abigail Spanberger, R-Va., decided not to seek re-election last year as she launched her bid to become Virginia’s next governor.

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Green, the Catholic University professor, said there is no hard and fast rule in American politics when it comes to expectations about resigning from office for a campaign. He drew attention to the candidates who unexpectedly announced that they would resign from their seats and move on to a different position.

“We don’t have a norm in this country that people resign from one office to run for another. Robert Dole in the 1996 presidential election. [Bill] Clinton said, ‘I will be leaving the Senate while running for president,’ and this received national attention. I wouldn’t expect Sherrill to do the same. But of course it’s a risk.”

Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger walks with Democrat Jay Jones in the 54th Annual Buena Vista Labor Day Festival parade in September 2025. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Despite the gap narrowing in recent months, Ciattarelli strategist Russell emphasized that Sherrill still has the lead in the race with just three weeks until Election Day on Nov. 4.

“Jack Ciattarelli doesn’t have the backbone to stand up to his boss in the White House. No wonder Jack continues to trail even in the Fox News poll, he can’t get past the mid-40s and voters are rejecting him on health care, costs, taxes and utilities. Sad!”

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The early voting period for the governor’s race will begin on October 25 and continue through November 2.