Alexandria-born Mikie Sherrill sworn in as New Jersey governor
The South Lakes High grad and her former Capitol Hill roommate, Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger, took office days apart
Mikie Sherrill, born in Alexandria in 1972, was sworn in Tuesday as New Jersey’s 57th governor, becoming the first Democratic woman and first female military veteran to hold the office.
Sherrill, 54, took the oath at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark. NJBIZ reported that she is the first governor to be inaugurated outside Trenton since 1790. She signed executive orders freezing electricity rate hikes and declaring a state of emergency to expand power generation.
The inauguration came three days after Abigail Spanberger was sworn in as Virginia’s first female governor. The two served together in Congress and shared a Capitol Hill apartment for four years, according to The Washington Post.
Sherrill grew up in Northern Virginia and graduated from South Lakes High School in Reston in 1990. Spanberger was born in New Jersey and moved to Virginia at 13. Both won their first congressional races in 2018.
“I don’t think either of us thought we were going to run for office until in 2018 we felt called to serve again,” Sherrill told CNN in October.
Path to office
Sherrill graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1994, among the first women eligible for combat flight assignments. She flew H-3 Sea King helicopters on missions in Europe and the Middle East, served as a Russian policy officer, and spent nearly a decade on active duty, according to her official biography.
After earning a law degree from Georgetown University in 2007, she worked as a federal prosecutor in New Jersey before winning a congressional seat representing the 11th District in 2018.
Her victory ends a 64-year pattern: New Jersey had not elected the same party to three consecutive gubernatorial terms since 1961. She succeeds two-term Democrat Phil Murphy.
Sherrill joins U.S. Sens. Mark Warner of Virginia and Angus King of Maine, also born in Alexandria, in high political office.