Mikie Sherrill | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromNew Jersey's11th district | |
| Assumed office January 3, 2019 | |
| Preceded by | Rodney Frelinghuysen |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Rebecca Michelle Sherrill (1972-01-19)January 19, 1972 (age 53) Alexandria,Virginia, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse | Jason Hedberg |
| Children | 4 |
| Education | United States Naval Academy (BS) London School of Economics (MSc) Georgetown University (JD) |
| Website | House website |
| Military service | |
| Branch/service | United States Navy |
| Years of service | 1994–2003 |
| Rank | Lieutenant |
Rebecca Michelle "Mikie" Sherrill[1][2] (/ˈmaɪki/MY-kee; born January 19, 1972)[3] is an American politician, formerU.S. Navyhelicopter pilot, attorney, and formerfederal prosecutor[4] serving as theU.S. representative forNew Jersey's 11th congressional district since 2019. The district includes a swath of suburban and exurban areas west ofNew York City. A member of theDemocratic Party, Sherrill was elected on November 6, 2018.[2][5] She was reelected in2020 by a slightly narrower margin and reelected in2022 and2024 by wide margins.[6][7][8] She is currently seekingthe Democratic nomination forGovernor of New Jersey.[9]
Sherrill was born inAlexandria, Virginia.[2] She grew up in various locations along the East Coast of the United States due to her father's job.[2][10]
Sherrill is a graduate ofSouth Lakes High School inReston, Virginia.[11][12] In 1994, she earned herB.S. from theUnited States Naval Academy in Annapolis.[1] In 2003, Sherrill received anMSc in international and world history from theLondon School of Economics. In 2004, she received a certificate in Arabic language from theAmerican University in Cairo. In 2007, Sherrill earned aJuris Doctor fromGeorgetown University Law Center.[13]
Inspired by her grandfather who served as a pilot inWorld War II, Sherrill wanted to be a pilot from a young age.[13] She was among the flight school graduates in the first class of women eligible for direct assignment to fly combat aircraft.[14] After graduation from the Naval Academy in 1994, Sherrill completed over a year of flight training, was designated as aNaval Aviator after graduation from the advanced rotary-wing training pipeline atNAS Whiting Field, Florida, and became aU.S. Navy helicopter pilot flying theH-3 Sea King.[2] Sherrill flew missions throughout Europe and in the Middle East.[10][13] In 2000, she was based atNaval Air Station Corpus Christi, Texas.
Following her first operational sea duty assignment in a flying squadron, Sherrill was a Russian policy officer assigned to the then-Headquarters,Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Naval Forces Europe (CINCUSNAVEUR).[2][15]
Sherrill served on active duty in the United States Navy for nine years, the final five in the rank ofLieutenant.[16] In 2003 Sherrill was nominated for promotion to the rank ofLieutenant Commander.[17] She left the Navy in 2003 before obtaining a permanent promotion to the rank of Lieutenant Commander.[18][failed verification]
In the summer of 2007, while earning herJuris Doctor degree from Georgetown University Law Center, Sherrill was a summerassociate atKirkland & Ellis.[19] After graduation from Georgetown University Law Center, Sherrill returned to Kirkland & Ellis'sNew York City office, where she worked in the litigation department from 2008 to 2011.[20]
After leaving Kirkland & Ellis, Sherrill joined the United States Attorneys' Office as an outreach and reentry coordinator.[21] In 2015, Sherrill became anassistant United States Attorney for theDistrict of New Jersey, a federal prosecutor, working under U.S. AttorneyPaul Fishman.[2][22] She left that office in 2016.[10] At the time, she planned on going into the field ofcriminal justice reform.[13]
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On May 11, 2017, Sherrill launched her campaign forNew Jersey's 11th congressional district in theUnited States House of Representatives.[23][24] The seat had been held by 12-term Republican incumbentRodney Frelinghuysen, the chairman of theHouse Appropriations Committee, who in January 2018 announced he would not seek reelection.[12][25][26] The district had long been considered a Republican stronghold, even after it had been made slightly more Democratic on paper by pushing it further intoEssex County, including a slice ofMontclair around Sherrill's home. Frelinghuysen had been reelected three more times from this redrawn district without serious difficulty, but was thought to be vulnerable afterDonald Trump carried it by just a single point in 2016.[27]
In November 2017, comedianChelsea Handler, who is fromLivingston, went to Montclair to show her support for Sherrill's campaign.[28] Sherrill was endorsed by thepolitical action committee organizationVoteVets.org,[29] thepro-choice Democratic PACEMILY's List,[30] the editorial board ofThe New York Times,[31] and the New Jersey chapter ofClean Water Action.[32]
In June 2018, Sherrill won the Democratic primary with 77% of the vote, beating four other candidates.[33][34][35]
Sherrill raised $2.8 million during the primary election, placing her among the top House fundraisers in the country.[36][37] Her campaign raised $1.9 million in the second quarter of 2018, setting a record for a House candidate from New Jersey in one quarter.[38]
On November 6, Sherrill defeated RepublicanJay Webber with 56.8% of the vote to Webber's 42.1%.[39][40] The election marked the largest partisan vote share swing in the 2018 cycle, with a 33-percentage-point swing from a 19-point Republican margin in 2016 to a 15-point Democratic one in 2018.[41][42] Sherrill is the first Democrat to win this seat since 16-term incumbentJoseph Minish was defeated in 1984 after the district had been redrawn to be more Republican.[43] She was the first Democrat since Minish's defeat to win more than 40% of the district's vote.
Sherrill had a closer contest for reelection in 2020, defeating Republican tax lawyer Rosemary Becchi with 53.3% of the vote to 46.7%. That yearJoe Biden became the first Democratic presidential candidate to win the 11th district since it assumed its present configuration in 1984, carrying the district with 52.7% of the vote.[44][45]
With redistricting following the2020 census, the 11th District became somewhat friendlier for Sherrill. It was pushed further into Essex County while losing its share of heavily RepublicanSussex County. Had the district existed in 2020, Biden would have carried it with 58 percent of the vote.[46] Sherrill won by a much wider margin than 2020, defeating Republican Paul DeGroot with 59% of the vote to 40.2%.[47]
In 2024, Sherrill easily won the Democratic primary over real estate consultant Mark De Lotto with 93.6% of the vote.[48] In the November general election, Sherrill was re-elected with 56.5% of the vote overBelleville building inspector Joseph Belnome. Sherrill outperformed the Democratic Party's concurrent candidates for President and Senate, asKamala Harris only won 53% of the district's vote, whileAndy Kim won 54%.[49] TheNew Jersey Globe partially attributed Belnome's political unpopularity to his attendance at theJanuary 6 United States Capitol attack.[48]
Following her election, Sherrill joined the moderateNew Democrat Coalition, the second-largest Democratic caucus in the House, and was named its freshman whip.[50] She also joined theBlue Dog Coalition, a caucus of moderate and conservative House Democrats, but later left the group in 2023.[51] She joined two other female veterans in the Democratic freshman class, fellow Naval Academy graduateElaine Luria and former Air Force officerChrissy Houlahan.
Per a promise to her constituents, Sherrill did not vote forNancy Pelosi to retake the speakership, instead voting forCheri Bustos ofIllinois.[52] She voted "present", essentially an abstention, in her second Speakership vote.[53]
In 2019, Sherrill initially opposed exploring the first impeachment of PresidentDonald Trump, but she changed her mind in September after a whistleblower alleged that Trump pressured Ukrainian PresidentVolodymyr Zelensky to investigateJoe Biden.[54] According to one report, Sherrill was instrumental in motivating House speaker Nancy Pelosi to proceed with the impeachment inquiry and said her "grave concerns" about Trump's behavior were "rooted in self-sacrifice and principle".[55] An op-ed she co-wrote with six other freshman Democrats with national security backgrounds—Houlahan, Luria,Gil Cisneros,Jason Crow,Elissa Slotkin andAbigail Spanberger—said that "everything we do harks back to our oaths to defend the country" and described the claims against Trump as "a threat to all we have sworn to protect".[56]
Sherrill indicated her support for a second impeachment of Trump after the2021 United States Capitol attack.[57] She said she had seen some colleagues giving what she called "reconnaissance tours" of the building the day before the attack.[58][59][60]
Sherrill voted with PresidentJoe Biden's stated position 100% of the time in the117th Congress, according to aFiveThirtyEight analysis.[61]
According toFiveThirtyEight, Sherrill has voted with Biden 92.6% of the time in the 118th Congress through 2023, while Democrats in Congress voted with Biden 93% of the time on average.[62]
On February 1, 2023, Sherrill was among twelve Democrats to vote for a resolution to end COVID-19 national emergency.[63][64]
In 2023, Sherrill criticized the implementation ofcongestion pricing in lower Manhattan, New York City. She described the congestion pricing plan as "New York's greedy cash grab from New Jersey commuters."[65]
On July 9, 2024, Sherrill became the seventh House member to publicly request President Biden step aside as the presumptive Democratic nominee for the2024 United States presidential election.[66]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Mikie Sherrill | 35,338 | 77.4 | |
| Democratic | Tamara Harris | 6,615 | 14.5 | |
| Democratic | Mark Washburne | 1,538 | 3.4 | |
| Democratic | Alison Heslin | 1,253 | 2.7 | |
| Democratic | Mitchell H. Cobert | 885 | 1.9 | |
| Total votes | 45,629 | 100 | ||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Mikie Sherrill | 183,684 | 56.8 | |
| Republican | Jay Webber | 136,322 | 42.1 | |
| Independent | Robert Crook | 2,182 | 0.7 | |
| Libertarian | Ryan Martinez | 1,386 | 0.4 | |
| Total votes | 323,574 | 100.0 | ||
| Democraticgain fromRepublican | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Mikie Sherrill (incumbent) | 79,961 | 100.0 | |
| Total votes | 79,961 | 100.0 | ||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Mikie Sherrill (incumbent) | 235,163 | 53.3 | |
| Republican | Rosemary Becchi | 206,013 | 46.7 | |
| Total votes | 441,176 | 100.0 | ||
| Democratichold | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Mikie Sherrill (incumbent) | 161,436 | 59.0 | |
| Republican | Paul DeGroot | 109,952 | 40.2 | |
| Libertarian | Joseph Biasco | 2,276 | 0.8 | |
| Total votes | 273,664 | 100.0 | ||
| Democratichold | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Mikie Sherrill (incumbent) | 222,583 | 56.5 | |
| Republican | Joseph Belnome | 164,556 | 41.8 | |
| Green | Lily Benavides | 4,780 | 1.2 | |
| Independent | Joshua Lanzara | 1,832 | 0.5 | |
| Total votes | 393,751 | 100.0 | ||
| Democratichold | ||||
Sherrill is married to Jason Hedberg, a fellow classmate and graduate of theUnited States Naval Academy,[75][76] who served as aU.S. Navy intelligence officer. The couple has lived inMontclair with their four children since 2010.[13][10]
Sherrill isRoman Catholic.[77]
Rebecca M. Sherrill, U.S. District Attorney
...Sherrill ... had not been in favor of moving forward with the impeachment.... However, she stated that the recent allegation Trump asked Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate Joe Biden has provided an unambiguous case against the president.
...By citing their past careers 'in the defense of our country,' Sherrill and her colleagues framed their statement as rooted in self-sacrifice and principle, not partisanship....
The average Democratic representative sided with Biden on those votes 93 percent of the time, while the average Republican representative voted with the president 5 percent of the time.
| U.S. House of Representatives | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromNew Jersey's 11th congressional district 2019–present | Incumbent |
| U.S. order of precedence (ceremonial) | ||
| Preceded by | United States representatives by seniority 230th | Succeeded by |
| International | |
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| National | |
| People | |
